#michael and penny wrote a novel

[subbyfoxelf]

2022 in review, part 5: novel first reads

my top ten favorite first reads of this year! more or less! idk it’s harder for me to rank books than other kinds of media sometimes, i feel like. i did my best.

1. wolfsong by t.j. klune (2015)

i already wrote a very long review of this so i’m not gonna rehash it here, but yeah this is a gay werewolf book with a very unique/artistic writing style and i’m pretty sure the main character is literally otherkin. (they don’t use the word “otherkin” but his experiences line up so well it’s kind of scary.) obviously i’m a fan.

2. wolf-speaker by tamora pierce (1994)

omfg i need to get back to this series i love tamora pierce’s writing style so much. i keep alternating between kicking myself that i didn’t read these as a kid & celebrating the fact that i get to read them all now. but, yeah, i need to get back to this series. and her stuff in general.

3. any way the wind blows by rainbow rowell (2021)

this is far & away the best book of the simon snow series. it’s just such a godsdamned satisfying ending.

i mean, okay, i do find it a little off-putting that i’m meant to believe that penny is heterosexual, but we can’t win ‘em all. but also we get to see her rules lawyer a fucking demon??? and be a stone cold badass in the process? so i can’t really complain about how that went.

the writing of simon & baz’s intimacy with each other was fucking sublime. it was so heartful & honest, i just ached for them.

i’m a little disappointed that this was such a definitive ending because i could’ve kept following these characters for like a dozen more books, but honestly it was such a perfect ending it’s kind of hard to argue with it.

4. birth of the firebringer by meredith ann pierce (1985)

yeah i can’t imagine what i found appealing about the unicorn book with narration from what feels like an awfully authentic animal headspace whose culture is SUPER pagan and where the main perils are 1) vore, 2) mind control, 3) literally a tornado. just truly drawing a blank here.

5. wayward son by rainbow rowell (2019)

i’m so glad the harry potter books never did an american roadtrip because holy shit it would have been insufferable. this, on the other hand, is brilliant.

everyone at ren fairs is apparently actually a witch or supernatural creature? vampires run las vegas? techbros are trying to contract vampirism for incredibly dumb reasons? yes, yes, yes. perfect.

6. star trek: discovery: dead endless by dave galanter (2019)

we gays are so powerful, you guys. i mean, the fucking butterfly effect of the awful season 1 of discovery unironically employing the bury your gays trope resulting in us ending up with this profic au where culber’s ghost finds his way onto a discovery commanded by a michael burnham who never mutineed and has family dinners with fleet captain georgiou & surrogate sibling saru, and he just immediately starts making out with au stamets who starts working on bending the laws of physics to the will of his multiverse gay love story.

sometimes profic is just fanfic with resources & a stamp of legitimacy, and when it is it’s glorious.

7. star trek: discovery: fear itself by james swallow (2018)

the discovery novels are shockingly good. like, this one is so action packed while also being such a great character study of saru. it honestly surpasses what the show was doing contemporaneously. i’d really like to see more comics or novels set on the shenzhou.

8. murder on the orient express by agatha christie (1934)

this was almost certainly hindered by the fact that i had seen so many adaptations of it by the time i read it that i felt like i had already read it, but i nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit and am eager to read more mystery novels (and christie novels specifically.)

9. lunatic fringe by allison moon (2011)

patient worldbuilding, imperfect but well-meaning characters having mostly (mostly) good-faith conflicts over strategy, and L E S B I A N   W E R E W O L V E S. yeah, that’ll work.

10. blood and chocolate by annette curtis klause (1997)

this book’s picture is in the dictionary under “problematic fave,” but this really is delightful if you can get past all the ways in which it’s awful. and i can, clearly.

[baguetteavocat]

OKAY so. uhh guess i’m doing this. thank you @vengeful-otaku bc u seemed to be v interested and it made me feel slightly less self-conscious so that’s nice!

basically, and i’ll be 100% honest, it all started out of spite. me and @pennysbees were talking about how gross stephen king is, and i decided that we were going to create a new, very gay, not at all pedophilic horror novel for everyone to love.

now, i’m fairly good at creating creepy things apparently. i have been plagued with nightmares from a young age, and though i absolutely cannot stand horror, i wanted to give it a shot.

i’ll start with the main concept: there’s this town that’s packed tightly in between a dense forest with a large lake and a long stretch of plains and grassland and whatnot. it’s most notable feature, apart from the lake and whatnot, is the farms. there’s only a few, but it’s a small town. most if not everything produce-wise comes from within. it’s a very secluded little town. they have a factory or two as well, but they’re rather small. here’s a (VERY) rough approximation of it all that i drew when i first came up with it (obviously it needs updating but i’m not very motivated rn):

so, let’s focus on the lake. there’s a cave that travels underneath it, as shown. at the end of this cave is where our real story begins. deep within the cave is a small wooden box of sorts, opened, and a strange looking seed having fallen out. still inside the box is an old and beaten journal. it is filled with entries and observations, the author obviously studying the seed and it’s properties. it’s very clear in the entries that the author becomes increasingly paranoid and eventually loses his sanity. the entries just stop, no indication of what happened to the author. here’s a sketch that i made a while back (excuse the shit quality):

[PHOTO]

The seed itself has many small holes, small tendrils of a viney nature slowly growing out and taking hold of the earth around it, blooming into odd purple flowers at the surface. here’s a sketch from when i first came up with the idea:

and here’s a sketch of the flowers:

now for the characters!! my favourite children!!! there are four main characters as of now. their names, in descending age order, are Amber Jace (17), Mary Kahl (17), Dalton Avery Brookes aka DAB (14), and Michael Westfield (13). it’s kinda funny, because at the time i didn’t id as trans and my name wasn’t michael, but the name fits him so we kept the name the same. here are their (very basic) descriptions as of now, but they very well may and probably will change:

obviously i could go into a bit more detail, but i think i wanna save some of that for the actual novel yknow? i didn’t explain the actual horror aspect because i wanna keep it a secret ;)

that’s all that i can really think of as of now! i haven’t started the actual writing process so of course these things are kinda just outlines, but i tried to develope them as best i could before actually deciding on them.

thank y’all for all y’all’s interest :3

[tabloidtoc]

Globe, March 16

Cover: Coronavirus Destorying the World 

Page 2: Up Front & Personal -- Liev Schreiber on a scooter, Salma Hayek smoking a cigarette, Jon Voight 

Page 3: Carnie Wilson, Vinny Guadagnino, Busy Philipps 

Page 4: Angelina Jolie may be worth millions on paper but she is struggling to pay her bills despite wringing every penny she can from ex Brad Pitt, desperate Ben Affleck begs Jennifer Garner  to reunite 

Page 5: Cash-strapped American Chopper star Paul Teutul Sr.’s bank account has taken another hit after he’s been ordered to pay $260,000 to a photographer for using his artwork without permission, John Oates of Hall & Oates says he bedded thousands of women in the ‘70s 

Page 6: Rolling Stones super groupie Anita Pallenberg held seances to contact the dead and was crazy for vampires and spells and dark arts, Jane Seymour plans to wed for the fifth time to her beau of six years British director David Green before she turns 70 next year 

Page 7: Engelbert Humperdinck is happy after a cutting-edge acupuncture treatment miraculously sparked his Alzheimer’s-stricken wife into remembering and speaking again, Lee Majors has zero sympathy for ailing home-wrecker Ryan O’Neal and Lee will never forgive Ryan for stealing Farrah Fawcett, freaked-out fans are slamming a hologram of Whitney Houston that is hitting the road for an international tour 

Page 8: Disgraced Prince Andrew’s feeble denials about bedding one of pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein’s underage sex slaves are crumbling as new witnesses and explosive tapes surface blasting his alibi to bits 

Page 10: U.S. planes battle UFO invaders -- the U.S. Navy is covering up a secret shooting war with UFOs that an expert claims has led to no-holds-barred air battles with casualties on both sides 

Page 11: John Tesh nearly pulled the plug on himself while he battled cancer but his wife Connie Sellecca saved him, after barely cheating death in a terrifying fireball crash that some experts thought would end his racing career gutsy NASCAR star Ryan Newman has vowed to drive again 

Page 12: Celebrity Buzz -- Adam Sandler walks his dog, Carrie Ann Inaba was raised in the paradise of Hawaii but she says her childhood was straight out of hell, Pete Davidson got the last laugh on comic Louis C.K. after Louis ratted him out to SNL boss Lorne Michaels about his pot smoking but then news broke of Louis’ sexual misconduct, Amy Schumer is determined to give son Gene a sibling despite the odds, Mandy Moore is tuning up a TV series about her teen queen years as a pop star 

Page 13: Jenna Bush Hager lost her phone on the subway and it was returned, David Letterman gives $20 to a homeless man, Rachael Ray at a Miami food fest, Meg Ryan grocery shopping

Page 14: Margot Robbie uses a simple no-nonsense approach to landing her Once Upon a Time in Hollywood role as Sharon Tate -- she just wrote to Quentin Tarantino and asked, Rainn Wilson has landed a role in the new Amazon series The Power based on the novel by Naomi Alderman, Fashion Verdict -- Brie Larson 4/10, Meghan Trainor 1/10, Janelle Monae 3/10, Linda Thompson 8/10, Jaimie Alexander 2/10 

Page 16: Martha Stewart packs on 47 lbs. after dating disasters, Placido Domingo whines he’s truly sorry for his pervy antics as a serial sex harasser and abuser

Page 17: Convicted rape fiend Harvey Weinstein to die in jail hell in Rikers Island

Page 19: 10 Things You Don’t Know About Aaron Paul, Kelly Ripa says she and husband Mark Consuelos will be totally naked at all times after their youngest kid leaves for college, singing as a kid helped Mary J. Blige survive tough times 

Page 20: True Crime 

Page 24: Cover Story -- Doomsday is here -- coronavirus creating chaos as plague races around the world -- financial markets in ruins as nations close borders and ban public events 

Page 27: Health Report 

Page 38: Rod Stewart is the world’s stingiest person according to a British TV broadcaster 

Page 44: Straight Talk -- Face it, Wendy Williams -- you’ve become a nip/tuck nut 

Page 45: Brad Pitt’s mom keeps nagging him to reunite with ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, The Flash hunk Rick Cosnett has come out of the closet, Hugh Jackman is close to sealing a $15 million deal to play disco icon Barry Gibb in an upcoming Bee Gees biopic and he sees it as the role of a lifetime

[prairiedust]

The Folkloristics of Supernatural

So. Something interesting is happening in Season 14. I suspected that it was coming when they revealed in 12 that Jack’s name would be Jack. Jack as in “the Giant Killer” Jack. Jack like “Jack Tales.” Jack from all of the “Jack and the Devil” stories. This Jack. But Dabb is running a long mytharc, so last season was the set-up for this season-- priming the pump, if you will, for what the writers are doing now, and it came to fruition in the first few episodes.

As I said before, we got a hint of this theme in Jack’s name as well as in the way the season wrapped up with grieving Dean and Dead!Cas mirroring the last scene of despairing Cas and Possessed!Dean. Folklore brings with it the other thematic elements we’ve seen so far-- mirrors (oh my god the mirrors,) recursion and repetition, callbacks, sleep, and sleep-like death.

But why folklore *in particular*? And how is “folklore” as a theme in seasons 13 and 14 any different from the fact that this is a show *based* on folk tales?

This season, the writers are not only telling stories drawn from folklore, they are using folklore and folkloristics (the academic discipline) as a theme.

Andrew Dabb wrote a formulaic tale into the premiere, and I flipped my lid. A formula tale is one that relies on a set structure, such as the tale of Henny Penny, The Little Red Hen, or the Fisherman and his Wife, where challenges or episodes are repeated over and over until all the possibilities are exhausted or something breaks the chain. The story of Michael’s quest is a tale that relies on formula as well as on the structure of a “rule of three,” or two challenges that fail and one that succeeds. He asked a human and an angel what they wanted, before finding a monster whose desires he considered purest. Compare that structure to Goldilocks and the Three Bears, or The Three Little Pigs. I have a much more in-depth analysis of the “rule of three” that I will post later. This and other “folklore” elements in the next three episodes established this as an official “Thing on the Show.”

For now and for those of you new to the idea of the study of folklore, I’ll summarize the history of the academic discipline of folkloristics.

More than six hundred years ago, in post-Renaissance Europe, concerned scholars and bored aristocrats started doing something strange.

They started collecting folk stories from the lower classes.

This was strange because the disdain that the “upper class” (which included not just nobility and gentry but clergy and those squirrely scholars as well) felt for the emerging middle class and the peasantry can not be overstated. But perhaps because they were fascinated with that which they looked down upon, many learned men and women during the Age of Enlightenment began to study folkways and oral tales.

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, “fairy tales,” “wonder tales,” “Märchen,” and “Mother Goose” stories lit up courts (and later salons) all over Europe. People recorded them from a handy peasant, wrote them down with a judicious application of upper-class refinements, and later crafted original stories inspired by them. There are works that were preserved from an oral version, like Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” (which is based on a Neapolitan folk tale but is considered a literary work rather than a transcription and if you read a faithful translation you’d get why that is, he very much polished it with literary allusions and asides) as well as those found in Grimms’ first edition (1812) of collected oral stories which included the bloody version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” then there are folk tales that were cleaned up and sanitized for your comfort, like every Grimm edition since that one, ha ha, and at last there are “literary” fairy tales, or stories that are “original content” but were constructed on a folkish scaffolding like, Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” and Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose.” Authors still use fairy tales to inform and inspire-- Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling edited several anthologies of contemporary fairy tales or retellings of old tales by modern authors, beginning with Snow White, Rose Red in 1993 and ending in 2000 with Black Heart, Ivory Bones which, if you enjoy trope subversion and walking around for days bearing a lingering sense of disquiet, are seriously worth reading.

While the Grimms’ work in collecting German folk tales is considered the “watershed” moment for European folk studies (the Chinese, in contrast, have been archiving oral poetry and stories for thousands of years and Arab Muslim scholars may have started collecting folk tales as early as the 10th century CE,) it wasn’t until about a hundred years had passed from the Grimms’ first publication that the discipline took a distinctly scientific turn.

In 1910, a Finnish folklorist named Artti Aarne published a work entitled ‘Verzeichnis der Märchentypen,” or “Types of Folktales.” He had analyzed his own extensive collection of Scandinavian folk stories and realized that these tales often shared the same plots and elements—helpful animals, daring rescues, clever wives, and more-- albeit in different configurations. He broke the stories down to their essential components-- decoded their DNA, if you will-- and asserted that these story elements were used like beads on a string to construct a myriad of tales. He called these elements “Motive,” or motifs. In 1960, an American anthropologist named Stith Thompson translated Aarne’s work from the German and expanded upon it to include stories from a broader European sampling as well as Native American traditions. This became known as the Aarne-Thompson Motif Index. It is one cog in a larger academic movement during the 50’s and 60’s wherein researchers of all stripes endeavored to unearth the earliest roots of mankind—from the search for fossils of the earliest hominids, to tracing the very first languages, to reconstituting the ur-myths that shaped human culture. Academics and field researchers were determined to pinpoint the moment in time when we became more than just a bipedal primate (if we ever even have.) The Index revolutionized folkloristics as anthropologists and other scholars realized that they could trace these story motifs through time and across geography the way linguists were already doing with sounds and words to compile Proto-Indo-European, the language of Neolithic humans who settled India and Europe, and how geneticists today can trace human migrations out of Africa by studying human genomes.

The Index is a taxonomic classification system, like meteorology or the Dewey Decimal System. There are twenty-six parent categories, with subcategories and more subcategories. The Motif Index is organized alphabetically from A-Mythological Motifs (like creation myths) to Z-Miscellaneous Motifs (such as “Z210: Brothers as Heroes.”) There is an adjacent Index of Tale Types, as well, which works similarly. In the Tale Types Index, for instance, “Tales of Magic” comprise subcategories 300 to 799; one subcategory in “Tales of Magic” is “Supernatural or Enchanted Relatives,” which covers tale types 400-459. Tale type number AT 410 is “Sleeping Beauty.” The Basile tale “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” “Sleeping Beauty in the Woods” by Charles Perrault, as well as Grimms’ “Little Briar Rose” fall under this category. The two indices operate in tandem-- for instance, the Basile story and the tale collected by the Grimm brothers are the same kind of story, but they have unique motifs. Both Perrault’s princess and the German Briar Rose are the subjects of a dire prophecy-- motif M340-- and fall into a magic sleep, which is motif D1960. Other motifs are not shared among all three stories, like cannibalism. Yeah, that story is buck wild once you go back a few generations.

Anyway, in 2004, the Aarne-Thompson Tale Type Index was once again revised, this time by German scholar Hans-Jörg Uther, in an attempt to make the index more inclusive of other global folk traditions, and it was renamed the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Classification of Folktales.

The quest to uncover the proto-stories of our ancestors continues in this very decade in the work of Julien d’Huy, who uses computer modeling to make “phylogenetic maps” of stories from around the globe. He can then create diagrams of a universal story-- for instance the “Cosmic Hunt” (D’Huy 2014).

You can also see the concept of the AT motif index in computer-generated novels and scripts, which are “written” by AIs who have ingested and digested and then assimilated whatever weird-ass shit their creators feed it and from that we get gems like “There is more Italy than necessary” from an AI-scripted Olive-Garden commercial.

The website TV Tropes works very much like the motif index, although in a much less taxonomic fashion—for instance, one trope they describe is “Room Full of Crazy,” a “motif” if you will that tv writers often use as a way of indicating quickly to the audience that a character is off their rocker (or at least obsessive to the point of near-insanity) by showing them writing or drawing something over and over in a notebook, on their bodies, on walls, etc. Supernatural used this recently to let us know how very messed up Gabriel was after his time with Assmodeus in season 13 “Bring ‘Em Back Alive.”

But it is important to remember that Kripke has used this exact trope before, in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” to let us know that Anna was having visions and hearing what would later be known as “Angel Radio.”

To some extent, Room Full of Crazy was also used all the way back in season one in “Dead in the Water” to represent the little boy’s repressed trauma.

The repetition of tropes (or callbacks) that have already been used earlier in the series is another signal that telegraphed this shift into the realm of folk tales and mythology in a thematic sense.

Yes, Supernatural has always been about folk tales and myth. Native American stories like that of the wendigo, urban folklore like the story of the hook man and other perils of “parking,” shtrigas, skinwalkers, etc, have served as both monsters-of-the-week and Big Bads. The premise of the show draws, pishtaco-like, from world stories to survive. But we’re going to dig down and find not just the fairy tales of season 14, but the tale types and the motifs and discover what this kind of focused close-reading can tell us about this season’s values.

Lots of people point out that the Index is dry and strips away so much that you could literally tell a story just by listing the motifs in order (this comment from my folklore prof many, many years ago when we got into the motif index in class.) But that is not at all how the originators intended the index to be used. If anything, as evidenced by the “phenogenetic” tale typing of d’Huy, the presence of a folktale motif is more powerful than any literary allusion or pop-culture reference. If you realize that you’re watching a story that involves a “beat the Devil” premise, and you’ve read some of those tales, they should all light up like a constellation in your memory. You might even mentally replay the electric guitar riff from Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” When we learned that the nephilim was going to be named Jack, and that his mother was hanging all of her hopes on him, you may have subconsciously thought of Jack and the Beanstalk or other Jack tales and made a prediction about the kind of story that we might see Jack feature in*. All the protagonists, all the challenges, all the outcomes of those stories will spread like beacons across a plain-- which is what comparative literature is all about in the first place. It is less about reducing a story to its DNA and more about finding that story’s family tree. And writers like Jane Yolen and the aforementioned Datlow and Windling use these bits of stories to write new ones. Oh and writers like Mr. Andrew Dabb, who used a most familiar formula (to his American audience at least) to start out the season. It’s wild, y’all.

So welcome to the folkloristics of Supernatural. As my favorite professor used to say, are there any thoughts, questions, miscellaneous abuse? My asks are open.

Here’s to a fantastic mideseason.

*allusion is not allegory, meaning you bring in an allusion to another text for depth; if you want to retell the story of Jesus and Christianity you write the Narnia Chronicles. However. Just because Jack was not the one to kill Lucifer does not mean Lucifer’s death was not foretold… the point of retelling these stories in a literary setting is to find the other values that the story can reveal, or to take a trope and twist it to reveal something that had not previously been considered.

Caveat: I’m NOT a prophet. None of us meta writers are. Nothing is stopping anyone involved in the show from making a decision that runs contrary to the story’s architecture, and it’s even been done before. I even have a post about trying to predict from the subtext or even text of a serial publication, like a tv series, that I’ll fit into this series. But anyway, use these posts to “prove” that destiel will be going canon at your own peril. And also I won’t be focusing only on “destiel” subtext. There’s stuff in these episodes for everyone, it’s chock full o’ nuts.

ALSO I have been deliberately staying away from a lot of meta while I compiled this, so if there’s more going on along these lines please feel free to tag me in :)

[scifigeneration]

DYSTOPIA SCI-FI CON COMES TO LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER FOR INAUGURAL LAUNCH IN NOVEMBER

Three-Day Event Hosts West Coast Edition of The 8th Annual Philip K. Dick Sci-Fi Film Festival

Star Trek Veteran Tim Russ and Oscar-Winning Makeup Artist Barney Burman Among Celebrated Artists and Filmmakers Set To Appear

Beyond belief lies the heart of science fiction and this fall, fans of the genre will assemble at the inaugural Dystopia Sci-Fi Con, a new interactive event featuring a cinematic lineup of sci-fi, cyberpunk, virtual reality, and future noir alongside special guests, panels, exhibitors, and more. The gathering will also host the first half of The 8th Annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, a thriving platform for independent film in honor of acclaimed novelist Philip K. Dick. A number of celebrated actors, filmmakers, and speakers will appear including David Brin, Barney Burman, Elizabeth Karr, Julianna Robinson, Tim Russ, Saku Sakamoto, M.D. Selig, and John Alan Simon. Held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the event will run from November 8-10, 2019.

Theorized that science fiction is the science of tomorrow, Dystopia Sci-Fi Con will serve as a captivating observation into the future. “Dystopia refers to a world out of balance where the human spirit is crushed under the weight of monopolistic corporations,” said organizer Daniel Abella. “Our event is a fascinating way of watching how our lives will be affected by what is to come.” With a slate of activities highlighting feature and short films, cosplay, and guests from across the genre’s spectrum, Abella promises an enjoyable and satisfying occasion. “We are brining back the look and sound of traditional sci-fi cons,” he said. “In such a welcoming environment, fans can express their interests and feel more connected to everything they love about sci-fi.” As the West Coast home for The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, screenings will be held as part of its eighth annual outing that continues in New York City in March 2020. “Philip K. Dick created the modern spirit of rebellion through his questioning of a world run by conformity,” said Abella. “His work centered on the plight of humans keeping their dignity in the face of a dehumanized world and more than any other writer, he foresaw what is happening today.” The festival will present a lineup of independent films and a series of panels that explore revolutionary views and Philip K. Dick’s influence on science fiction. The timing of the gathering also honors a key work in the PKD universe with a noteworthy tribute planned. “Blade Runner takes place in L.A. in 2019,” said Abella of the 1982 film based on PKD’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? “For this reason alone, I cannot think of a better time than now to christen our sci-fi con.” Central to the festival’s program are two early official selections including the World Premiere of M.D. Selig's The Gunrunner Billy Kane, which follows a rogue professor in the arms trafficking business who funds scientific experiments to save the life of his dying daughter. Also screening is Wild Boar directed by Oscar-winning makeup artist Barney Burman in his directorial debut. The L.A. Premiere film depicts a hidden colony of mutant wild boars who prey on innocent people in a world where humans are no longer in control. “We are proud to have these films on our schedule because they show us that science fiction is the dress rehearsal of tomorrow,” said Abella. “They both speak of worlds with new and frightening living conditions after the balance between man and nature has been irrevocably lost.” Dystopia Sci-Fi Con will also introduce Deep Interactive Cinematic Experience, otherwise known as “Deep ICE,” where film and theater blend together and communicate insights into the nature of reality. “The audience will get to participate in a cinematic living theater to uncover the mysteries that connect us to some of the most popular sci-fi films of all time,” said Abella of the multimedia method that follows a “Matrix-style” simulation. “A mega-narrative will be weaved before the audience and they will experience something that is nothing short of a personal transformation.” Featured prominently throughout the convention will be a showcase of creative brands heavily influenced by science fiction. “We will have collectibles, graphic novels, comics, and artwork,” said Abella of the plans to have more than 100 businesses participating. “This is an important element because exhibitors being fans themselves are passionate about their products and services. They collectively represent another dimension of the sci-fi current.” The full schedule will be announced closer to the event. Early Official Selections: The Gunrunner Billy Kane (2019) — WORLD PREMIERE Director: M.D. Selig Run Time/Country: 57 min, USA Synopsis: A rogue professor runs guns to fund dangerous brain experiments that could possibly save his dying daughter. Starring M.D. Selig (Zero Dark Thirty), Mark Arnold(Blade Runner 2049), John Kassir (Jack The Giant Slayer), Imelda Corcoran (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and Julianna Robinson (Nun). Wild Boar (2019) — L.A. PREMIERE Director: Barney Burman Run Time/Country: 97 min, USA Synopsis: In a world where man is suddenly no longer at the top of the food chain, a group search in the desert for a bounty left by an eccentric billionaire but instead end up being hunted by a mutant boar with an axe to grind. Starring Augie Duke (Burning Kentucky), Daniel Roebuck (The Fugitive), Jessica Sonneborn (The Basement), Douglas Tait(Hellboy), Jim Nieb (I'm Dying Up Here), and Michael Reed (Brides of Satan). Special Guests + Panels: Panels devoted to film screenings, artificial intelligence, classic film and television, dystopian futures, genetic engineering, graphic novels, stem-based applications, time travel, UFO’s, and the legacy of Philip K. Dick will be held. The following attendees have been confirmed ahead of a full guest list slated to be announced at a later date. Tim Russ — Actor/Director/Musician Well known for his impressive roster of film and television credits, Mr. Russ has appeared in Spaceballs (1987), The Highwayman (1987-1988), and The Orville (2019) in addition to his extensive presence throughout the Star Trek franchise that includes Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993), Star Trek Generations (1994), and Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001). He directed and starred in Star Trek: Of Gods and Men (2007) and Star Trek: Renegades (2015) and is an accomplished musician with albums such as Only a Dream in Rio (1998), Tim Russ (2000), Kushangaza (2001), and Brave New World (2003). David Brin — Writer/Speaker/Futurist As a New York Times best-selling author and winner of Hugo, Locus, Campbell, and Nebula awards, Mr. Brin’s novels include "The Postman" (1985), "Heart of the Comet" (1986), "Kiln People" (2002), and the successful "Uplift Universe" novels which envision galactic issues of sapience and destiny. In addition to his writing career, he is a renowned internet security expert, business and governmental consultant, social media influencer, public speaker, and scientist with a Ph.D. in Physics. Barney Burman — Makeup Artist/Director/Screenwriter Winner of the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Makeup for Star Trek (2009), Mr. Burman is a highly acclaimed special effects makeup artist. He has worked on many notable productions including Body Snatchers (1993), The X-Files (1998), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), and Bird Box (2018). For his directorial debut, his film Wild Boar (2019) will hold its L.A. Premiere at The 8th Annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival in 2019. Elizabeth Karr — Actor/Producer/Teaching Artist As producing partner for Discovery Productions, Ms. Karr has overseen numerous projects including the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Radio Free Albemuth (2010). She produced the documentary The Good Breast (2016), which follows the journeys of four women and their surgeon through the course of breast cancer treatment and through her position as an executive member at Women In Film, is an advocate for female representation in cinema. In addition to working as a private acting coach and teaching artist, her acting credits include ER (2005), House (2005), Sleeper Cell (2006), and Women's Murder Club (2007). Julianna Robinson — Actor/Director/Producer/Screenwriter A performer of noted depth, Ms. Robinson’s credits include The Undertakers (2014), The Funeral Guest (2015), Nun (2017), and The Gunrunner Billy Kane (2019). For her work as a director, producer, and screenwriter, she has taken part in the productions of Lucky Penny (2015), The Many Mishaps of Penelope and Ursula (2017), The Party (2019), and Hurricane Forecast (2019). Saku Sakamoto — Animator/Director/Screenwriter Skilled at the techniques of animation, Mr. Sakamoto has directed several short films including Denshinbashira Eremi no koi (2009), Mattsu, Yamma, and Moburi (2014), and Fisshâman (2016). He also created the digital effects for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) and wrote and directed his first feature film ARAGNE: Sign of Vermillion (2018), an official selection at The 7th Annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival in 2019. M.D. Selig — Actor/Director/Producer/Screenwriter Having served in the U.S. Marines, Mr. Selig is a decorated combat veteran of Desert Storm. His first feature film Southern Justice (2006), for which he wrote, directed, produced and starred appeared on all major video outlets and is currently streaming on Netflix. He has been associated with several projects including Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and his production of The Gunrunner Billy Kane (2019), which will hold its World Premiere at The 8th Annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival in 2019. John Alan Simon — Director/Producer/Screenwriter A highly successful director, producer, and screenwriter, Mr. Simon serves as the president and CEO of Discovery Productions. He is noted for the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Radio Free Albemuth (2010), which won Best Science Fiction Feature at The Inaugural Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival in 2012. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in the financing, production, sales, and marketing of films including The Haunting of Julia (1977), Out of the Blue (1980), Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf(1985), and The Wicker Man (2001). Event Dates and Location: Dystopia Sci-Fi Con will take place November 8-10, 2019 at the Los Angeles Convention Center (1201 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015). For more information visit, https://www.dystopiasci-ficon.com and https://www.lacclink.com/events/detail/dystopia-sci-fi-con. Event Passes: Passes are available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dystopia-sci-fi-con-tickets-63888970631.

[dingoes8myrp]

No One Asked, But (Redux)

Waiting for my nose to decongest so I can (maybe) sleep. So, here are some answers no one asked for. I'm going to throw a smattering of fandoms in here.

what is your absolute favorite ship?

One Tree Hill: Nathan and Haley

In a show that wasn't always the most realistic (i.e. high school kids owning nightclubs...), Nathan and Haley felt like a very genuine relationship that became one of the healthiest in the show (after some work on both sides). I think Nathan makes Haley brave by believing in her and encouraging her when she's uncertain of herself. Haley makes Nathan reflect on himself, makes him empathize and rise above himself. They have their ups and downs, but these two always stick it out and they make each other better people.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Oz

These two are almost an OTP for me. I think Tara was a better fit for Willow during season 4 and onward, but I feel like Willow and Oz could also be an OTP under the right circumstances. They were so adorable and genuine with each other, accepting one another - flaws and all. They were very much ride or die. I could nerd about them for hours.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Tara

These two are a natural OTP for me. They bring out new sides of one another, and each is more confident with the other. They truly make each other better people. If it hadn't been for Tara's death I think these two would have always found a way back to each other, no matter what. Easily one of the healthiest relationships on the show.

what ship do you hate most?

Supernatural: Dean and Lisa

I didn't mind Lisa, but this relationship wasn't earned at all. They took a skeletal character, gave her no layers, and expected us to buy that this lady was Dean's happy ending. Cassie or Jo would have made much more sense.

The Walking Dead: Andrea and The Governor

I have a soft spot for Andrea. I hated her in the beginning, but she became one of my favorite characters. It bothered me when she became wrapped up in a man or when her plot became dependent on a man (it bothered me when they paired her with Shane too). She was such a powerhouse character and she grew so much by the time we got to the Governor. It drove me nuts that they backslid her and had her become overly invested in a guy she barely knew. Also, it literally killed her so there's that.

Angel: Connor and "Cordelia"

There was a lot I didn't like about this. First, that they ruined Cordelia by making her a villain, then had her pair up with Connor (who was kind of her surrogate son for a minute there). That pairing then also ruined Connor. Just, ick. So much wrong with it.

Lost: Jack and Kate

Least interesting ship in the show, and it was always the one that got shoved in my face. I didn't really have anything in particular I disliked about it, other than it was made so prominent when there were so many more interesting pairings we could have been focusing on more (i.e. Jack and Ana).

what was your first ship, and what fandom is it from?

Interview with the Vampire: Lestat and Louis

I was pretty young when I saw the movie (Maybe 9 or 10), and I always saw Lestat and Louis as a couple. This was reinforced when I eventually read the novel.

explain why do/don’t ship [pairing]

Angel: Angel and Cordelia

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd never write them as a couple, but I like Angel and Cordelia so much as friends and colleagues. I just don't see a romantic thing there.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow and Kennedy

This one didn't at all feel earned. Kennedy felt like a rebound, but was treated like an endgame. I just didn't buy it. Kennedy reminded me of high school Cordelia, with her venomous, selfish streak and I didn't see that very prominent trait being attractive to Willow.

One Tree Hill: Lucas and Brooke

These two never made sense to me. Brooke seemed to only like Lucas because Peyton liked him, then she moved in on him knowing that. Not a great start. Then that led to the whole cheating Lucas and Peyton plot and it felt like the whole ship was created as a plot device to make things difficult for Lucas and Peyton.

what’s a ship you like that most people don’t?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Riley

This was just a healthy ship for a while, and I really liked seeing Buffy in a relationship that was stable and reliable where she didn't have to worry about the guy deciding to maim one of her friends for shits and giggles. I do wish we'd gotten more time to get to know Riley better as his own character before they paired them. He couldn't really stand on his own. I also think he would have been more interesting if he was just a normal guy trained in combat instead of that whole "Initiative drugs" thing.

Lost: Shannon and Boone

Okay, the thing I liked about these two was that they were basically Kathryn and Sebastian from Cruel Intentions stuck on an island together. Their dynamic had so many twists and kept me hooked. I wish they'd stuck around longer.

what's a ship you hate that most people like?

Friends: Ross and Rachel

I just think these two bring out the worst in each other. I don't think they could have ended up with anyone else because they always seemed to find their way back to each other, but it was such an unhealthy relationship. It makes me cringe.

what is the most underrated ship, in your opinion?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Xander and Cordelia

Normally I don't like it when two characters who can't stand each other end up together. But, I think they helped each other grow. Cordelia became less shallow, choosing Xander over her popularity, and became slightly warmer because of it. Xander became less judgmental and more humble. I think their relationship is an important cornerstone in both of their arcs.

Penny Dreadful: Vanessa and Dorian

These two were just ridiculously hot, for one. But also, Dorian found the darker parts of Vanessa fascinating. He accepted her and wanted to know more about her. Vanessa didn't have to hide who she was around him. I wish they'd done more with them, particularly in later episodes.

why do you think [pairing] is so popular?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Spike

Again, these two are hot. Also, Spike sees a side of Buffy no one else does, and he accepts her entirely. We also see a kinder side of Spike in his quiet, intimate moments with Buffy when he's comforting her or giving her advice. Spike also becomes a part of Buffy's family (which includes her friends). He forms a close bond with Dawn in particular. He makes an effort to be a part of her life.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Angel

This is a Romeo and Juliet level "forbidden love" story - a classic romance. Angel and Buffy are passionate. They're partners, working together and fighting alongside one another. They're equals. Angel will do anything to help Buffy or to make her happy, and she'd do the same for him. Neither of them parted because they wanted to. Angel wanted to give Buffy a chance at a normal life, and she had no choice but to accept that and try to move on. This left a perpetual "will they, won't they?" vibe for the rest of the series runs.

what’s your favorite canon moment of [pairing]?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Faith

My favorite moment for them - one of my favorite scenes in anything ever - is the coma dream at the end of season 3. I believe this reflects Buffy's feelings for Faith. The cat symbolises Faith and Buffy inquires about who's going to take care of "him." Faith corrects that it's a she. I think Buffy wanted to take care of Faith, and felt she'd failed to do that. Faith also gives Buffy everything she has in the dream, and Buffy is overwhelmed, saying she can't use all of it. Faith tells her to take what she needs. This is Buffy acknowledging that Faith gave all she was capable of giving to their friendship/relationship, and that Buffy couldn't accept all of it. Faith tells Buffy how to defeat the Mayor. I think Buffy hopes Faith will eventually come around and join her side of the fight again. I could go on and on about these two.

One Tree Hill: Clay and Quinn

This is morbid, but I loved the episode that was one big coma dream for these two. It was such a well done episode and they had kind of a perfect fantasy day inside this horrible moment.

Penny Dreadful: Vanessa and Ethan

The exorcism when Ethan will not give up, and he's terrified, but he keeps going. He's not leaving that room alive until Vanessa is back. Such a powerful scene.

One Tree Hill: Lucas and Peyton

The school shooting episode when Lucas carries Peyton out of the school. They're not even a couple at this point, but it's such a vulnerable moment for both of them in the midst of one of the show's most raw, powerful episodes.

favorite AU ideas for [pairing]?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Oz

I'm not sure where this would fit, but I always wondered how these two would have fared.

have you ever written fanfiction/drawn fanart of [pairing]? would you consider it?

I wrote a fanfic ages ago that took place between Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat where Lestat and Louis reunited.

I also wrote a fanfic for David and Michael from The Lost Boys.

I don't typically write for a pairing. I kind of start with a plot and see where it goes. But I'm trying to write for a few pairings. If anything comes out decent I'll post it up.

[cheshirelibrary]

When I can’t stand to look at one more hateful tweet from the president, I read a book.

When I turn on the television to hear the news and all I hear is people shouting and talking over one another, I read a book.

When I realize that I have 1,200 unread emails, I read a book.

When the apartment is a mess and friends are on their way over, I read a book.

You get the point. When I’m stressed, I grab a book. I also read when I’m not stressed. I like to read.

When it’s a beautiful day, I read in the park.

When it’s raining, I read under the covers.

When I’m on a plane, I read on the plane.

When the plane is stuck on the tarmac, I have more time to read on the plane.

In Books for Living,  I described the ways books have guided me throughout my life. On the last page, I wrote that books remain one of the few defenses we have against narrowness, domination, and mind control. But only if we read them – and then only if we spring into action based on what we’ve learned and discovered. Books can’t do anything by themselves. They need us.

Today we need to read more than ever. And we need to act now more than ever.

So I want you to stop reading this (so I can stop writing it). Go read The Burning Girl by Claire Messud, a haunting novel about friendship. Go read Less by Andrew Sean Greer, one of the funniest books I’ve read in years – but also a book that had me sobbing at the end (happy tears). Go read Glass Houses by Louise Penny; this new novel is a masterwork that shook me with its exploration of justice, retribution, guilt, and honor. Go read Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson, a book of breathtaking urgency. 

Seriously. Go. I’ve got books to read. You do, too.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND March 22, 2019  - US

Of course, the big movie of the weekend is Jordan Peele’s US (Universal), his follow-up to his Oscar-winning mega-hit Get Out, this one starring Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke from Black Panther. Right now, from the reactions and rave reviews out of its SXSW premiere, Peele is not going to experience a sophomore slump and the world will continue to be his oyster. (As of this writing, I personally haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ll be attending the New York premiere on Tuesday night and hope to have a review done and posted some time Wednesday.)

You can read what I think of the box office prospects for Jordan Peele’s Us over at The Beat, and here’s MY REVIEW OF US.

A24 is also expanding Sebastian Lelio’s GLORIA BELL, a drama starring Julianne Moore which I loved, into more theaters on Friday, and that could also make an entry into the top 10 as solid counter-programming to Peele’s movie.

But let’s get to what hopefully you’re reading this for… and that’s the other stuff in theaters this weekend.

LOCAL FESTIVALS

I’m gonna start with this section this week, because I’m so excited about something going on at the IFC Center -- not the first time and definitely won’t be the last --  as it’s the 2nd annual WHAT THE FEST?!, which I sadly missed last year. This year’s line-up is slammin’, opening on Wednesday night with the World Premiere of Larry (Habit) Fessendern’s new movie Depraved, his take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Later on Wednesday is the NYC Premiere of the Swedish film The Unthinkable and then on Thursday is the NYC Premiere of Pollyanna McIntosh’s Darlin’, a sequel to Jack Ketchum’s 2009 movie The Woman, which was in turn a sequel to Offspring.

I have seen a couple of the movies including Penny Lane’s doc Hail Satan?about the Satanic Temple’s fight against theocracies in the form of states trying to put statues of the Ten Commandments on government sites. It’s a movie that has humor as well as politics, and it’s part of the all-day Satan-themed Sunday that will include my buddy Grady Hendrix doing a presentation in conjunction with his novel We Sold Our Souls. Friday night is the New York premiere of Emma Tammi’s The Wind, an amazing Western horror film set in the desolate wasteland, starring Caitlin Gerrard (Insidious: The Last Key) and Julia Goldani Telles (Slenderman).

If there’s one movie you ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE, it’s Shinichiro Ueda’s horror-comedy One Cut of the Dead, which is very hard to describe without spoiling but imagine if a film crew making a zombie movie is attacked by real zombies… and then throw any conceptions you might have about the movie out the window. I have to thank my pal David Jaffee for recommending the movie so highly, as it’s a very clever take on zombies. (And honestly, at this point, I have no idea if and when it will get U.S. distribution.) I probably won’t have a chance to see Roxanne Benjamin’s Body at Brighton Rock but Magnolia is opening it in April so hopefully I’ll see it before then.

LIMITED RELEASES

Opening in New York and L.A. on Friday before a wide release on March 29 is HOTEL MUMBAI (Bleecker Street), the directorial debut by Anthony Maras, which looks at the 2008 terrorist attacks on the Taj Hotel. It stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs as part of the ensemble cast dealing with Muslim terrorists who attacked the hotel in order to take Western hostages for ransom. It’s a solid debut by Maras, one with a lot of moving parts but handled sensitively and tactfully due to the nature of the events. I definitely recommend the movie if you have a chance to see it. It’s not quite United 93 but still very good.

Oscar-winning Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes (Son of Saul) returns with his new movie SUNSET (Sony Pictures Classics), set in Budapest 1913, as it follows Irisz Leiter as she arrives there to work as a milliner (hat salesperson) at the popular hat store that belonged to her parents, though she’s sent away by the owner Oszkar Brill. When a man shows up looking for Irisz’s brother Kalman, she begins to look into her lost past. I have to be honest that I wasn’t much of a fan of the movie, maybe because it was very long, slow and confusing to the point where I really didn’t understand much of what was happening. Clearly, it’s not a film on par with Son of Saul, although I guess some people might like it more than I did. It probably will open in New York and L.A., as that’s the way Sony Classics usually does things.

Filmmaker S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk) returns with his latest genre film DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE (Summit/Lionsgate), a police thriller starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn as disgraced police officers who decide to hijack an ambitious heist, stealing the bars of gold that were stolen by a group of robbers. It’s a decent movie if you’re into this sort of thing. Zahler keeps improving as a filmmaker and here, he makes a movie with the weight of Steve McQueen’s Widows, although I thought Tory Kittles was far more interesting than the two leads, even though they do have good chemistry together. This will open in select cities Friday.

Opening at the Film Forum on Wednesday is a wonderful doc by Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honnigmann called BUDDY, which looks at a number of people and their relationships with incredible service dogs who help them get through everything from blindness to PTSD. This really is a wonderful movie, especially if you’re a dog-lover because all of the dogs have personalities as interesting as their masters.

Also opening at Film Forum Friday and at the Lammle Monica Film Center  is Nancy Schwartzman’s new documentary Roll Red Roll (Together Films) looks at a 2012 incident of high school sexual assault in Steubenville, Ohio where a young woman was raped by the football team. It’s a harrowing story but if you’re interested in the type of true crime docs that are all over Netflix, this one should interest you as well. (It’s particularly struggling for me to watch it, having one nephew in high school not too far away from where this happened.)

A movie that I saw and reviewed out of the Tribeca Film Festival last year was Robert Budreau’s STOCKHOLM, which reunites him with Ethan Hawke from Born to Blue, this time playing a bank robber who robs a bank in Sweden with his partner (Mark Strong) and takes a bank manager (Noomi Rapace) hostage before she falls for him … leading to the term “Stockholm Syndrome.” No, I’m not making that up. I don’t remember hating or loving this but just thought it was okay, probably elevated by the presence of the cast.

Patricia Clarkson, Jacki Weaver, James Caan and Toby Jones star in Carol Morley’s thriller OUT OF BLUE (IFC Films) about a New Orleans detective (Clarkson) searching for the killer of a renowned astrophysicist (played by Mamie Gummer), who was shot to death in her observatory. I’ll try to watch this and write more about it soon.

John Travolta and Toby Sebastian star in Karzan Kader’s Trading Paint (Saban Films/Lionsgate), playing a fat her and son racing duo who have a falling out, something that a rival racing company uses to drive a wedge further into the relationship. The movie has been on Ultra VOD for the last month but it will open in select theaters and regular VOD Friday.

Following a one-night theatrical release in 150 theaters on Tuesday, Jesse V. Johnson’s action-thriller Triple Threat (Well GO USA), starring Tony Jaa (Ong-Bak) and Iko Uwais (The Raid) will be available in select theaters and VOD. They are part of a team of mercenaries sent to stop a group of assassins from killing a billionaire’s daughter. It also stars Scott Adkins, Tiger Chen, Michael Jai White and more.

Joel Proykus’ video game comedy Relaxer (Oscilloscope) stars Josh Burge (who previously starred in Proykus’ Ape) as Abbie who is trying to beat the impossible 256thlevel of Pac-Man with no food or water and a bunch of friends and acquaintances showing up. The comedy also stars David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man) and it opens in select cities.

Eric Khoo’s Ramen Shop (Strand Releasing) also opens in New York at the IFC Center and Landmark at 57 West. It follows a young Ramen chef named Masato who leaves Japan to go on a culinary journey through Singapore where he discovers family secrets and new recipes. It will expand to L.A. and other cities on April 5.

As far as streaming, we get our third Western in three weeks with Scott Martin’s Big Kill (Cinedigm), starring Christoph Sander, Jason Patric and more. It involves a Philadelphia accountant who travels West to join the family business who meets up with two rogues who have been run out of Mexico.  It’s on VOD now.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Harmony Korine will be on-hand Friday for the start of a special seriesshowing his films, including 2012’s Spring Breakers, as well as showing 1995’s Kids, which he wrote. (It’s all to prepare for the release of Korine’s latest film The Beach Bum, starring Matthew McConaughey, which will screen for members only.) Film Society of Lincoln Center director Kent Jones ventures downtown to promote his new movie Diane with a “Dream Double Feature” of Westerns The Shooting (1966) and Rio Bravo (1959) on Saturday afternoon. Late Nites at Metrograph will show Catherine Reillat’s Fat Girlon Wednesday night and then Masahiro Shinoda’s 1969 film Double Suicide on Friday and Saturday nights. This week’s Playtime: Family Matinees is Ken Kwapis’ 1996 monkey comedy Dunston Checks In, starring Jason Alexander from Seinfeld.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds. afternoon shows a singular screening of The Three Faces of Eve  (1957) starring Joanne Woodward. This week’s double features are John Ford’s Fort Apache  (1948), starring John Wayne, with Robert Aldrich’s Ulzana’s Raid (1972) on Weds. and Thurs, the comedy double feature of Monty Python and the Holy Grail  (1975)and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983) on Friday and Saturday, and then the Paul Wendkos double feature of The Mephisto Waltz (1971) and Special Delivery (1976) on Sunday and Monday. This weekend’s midnight movies are Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2 on Friday night and Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex But Were Afraid to Ask on Saturday. The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINE is Clarence Brown’s 1944 National Velvet, starring Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor. On Monday, the Bev shows the amazing Parker Posey breakthrough film Party Girl  (1995) with director Daisy von Scherler Mayer in person, then Tuesday’s GRINDHOUSE double feature is two from Hong Kong, The Tattoo Connection (1978) and another “Bruce Li” movie Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger, also from 1978.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

The ongoing Bob & Wray: A Hollywood Love Story series continues this week with the Fay Wray double feature of The Clairvoyant (1935) and Black Moon  (1934) on Weds, the Bill Riskin-penned Mister 880  (1950) and Broadway Will (1934) Thursday, then even more Frank Capra with American Madness (1932) and The Miracle Woman (1931)on Friday (and again, next Tuesday). The weekend sees a 35mm print of King Kongshown as part of Film Forum Jr., as well as in a double feature with The Most Dangerous Game (1932) on Saturday and again on Monday. Also showing this weekend is The Four Feathers ( 1929) – with live piano accompaniment--on Saturday and Magic Town (1947) and Capra’s Meet John Doe  (1941) on Sunday. Also Sunday is a single-showing horror double feature of The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat, both from 1933 and both starring Wray.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Before coming to New York’s Metrograph, Harmony Korine will be here in person for a Thursday screening of Trash Humpers and Spring Breakers, plus “Bruno Ganz Remembered” continues as the Egyptian also shows Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire on Sunday. (At one point, the theater was also showing a double feature of Nosferatu, The Vampire and The American Friend, too.) Old movie fans might also be interested in “The Musketeers of Pig Alley” and More Films of 1912, which a series of shorts by D.W. Griffith that run on Saturday and Sunday.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: The Feds  wraps up with Steven Spielberg’s 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. Weekend Classics: Early Godard also concludes this weekend with Pierrot Le Fou (1965) while this weekend’s Late Night Favorites is David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

MOMA (NYC):

MOMA continues the series Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall with the 1953 filmHow to Marry a Millionaireon Wednesday, Vincente Minelli’s 1955 film The CobwebThursday and Jonathan Glazer’s more recentBirth (2004) on Friday.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

For whatever reason, BAM is screening Michaelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 “classic” Zabriskie Point on Friday night – I’m not really a fan -- as part of BAM and Triple Canopy: On Resentment, but already sold out is Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film La Haine, starring Vincent Cassel, and other interesting films in the series, like Steve McQueen’s Hunger, starring Michael Fassbender.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

The museum’s Tribute to Bruno Ganz will screen Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire on Sunday, and it’s showing this year’s Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts as part of its ongoing family program.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

The Nuart’s Friday midnight offering isJohn Waters’ Polyester (1981)starring the late Divine.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The quad continues its Bertrand Blier series with the 40thanniversary restoration of his 1978 film Get Out Your Handkerchiefs.

AERO  (LA):

The AERO is booked up this week with the West Coast version of the Canada Now!Series.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This Friday’s big Netflix streaming debut is Jeff (Bad Grandpa)Tremaine’s Motley Crue biopic THE DIRT, starring Douglas Booth, Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones) and more. I haven’t seen it yet but I’ll probably watch it sometime this weekend.

That’s it for this week, but next week, we’ll get Tim Burton’s Dumboand more.

[christopherross7601]

The long Cocky-gate nightmare is over

Google Analytics Certification Exam: Get Certified in 2 Days

I’ve been wanting to write about Cocky-gate for some time now but the story – a row between self-published authors that degenerated into ridiculousness – seems finally over and perhaps we can all get some perspective. The whole thing started in May when a self-published romance author, Faleena Hopkins, began attempting to enforce her copyright on books that contained “cocky” in the title. This included, but was not limited to, Cocky Cowboy, Cocky Biker, and Cocky Roomie, all titles in Hopkins oeuvre.

Hopkins filed a trademark for the use of the word Cocky in romance titles and began attacking other others who used the word cocky, including Jamila Jasper who wrote a book called Cocky Cowboy and received an email from Hopkins.

After taking up the cause on Twitter and creating a solid example of Streisand Effect, Jasper changed the title of her book to The Cockiest Cowboy To Have Ever Cocked. But other authors were hit by cease and desist letters and even Amazon stepped in briefly as well and took down multiple titles for a short time.

From the Guardian:

Pajiba reported on Monday that the author Nana Malone had been asked to change the title of her novel Mr Cocky, while TL Smith and Melissa Jane’s Cocky Fiancé has been renamed Arrogant Fiancé. Other writers claimed that Hopkins had reported them to Amazon, resulting in their books being taken down from the site.

This went on for a number of weeks with the back and forth verging on the comical…

Hubby: What ya doin' honey? Me: Working on a dystopian short story inspired by #cockygate. Hubby: Is it called The Cocky Were-Rooster? Me:… Me: Dammit! Now I have to write that!

True Story. It wound up being "Diary of a Cocky Werecock" https://t.co/qU5XR4Ol4g

— Lara Grey (@authorlaragrey) June 16, 2018

to the serious.

I am so freakin' pissed. Candace Blevins' new book, Cocky Queen, was removed from B&N, iBooks, and Kobo.

IT'S NOT EVEN IN ROMANCE, IT'S WOMEN'S FICTION! #CockyGate pic.twitter.com/LkXl9Ypo3w

— Bianca-Quietly Loud-Sommerland

(@BSommerland) June 18, 2018

Hopkins went to court to defend her trademark and then bumped up against the powerful Author’s Guild who supported three defendants including a publicist who was incorrectly named as the publisher of one of the offending titles, The Cocktales Anthology.

“Beyond the obvious issues with the merits, it is evident from the face of the complaint that Plaintiffs failed to conduct a reasonable pre-filing investigation before racing to the courthouse. Indeed, the number and extent of defects alone call into question whether the filing was made in good faith. Plaintiffs’ lack of due diligence failed to uncover the stark difference between a publisher and a publicist, i.e., non-party best-selling author Penny Reid is the former, while Defendant Jennifer Watson is the latter (Ms. Watson’s website even states that she provides “publicist and marketing services” and nowhere indicates that she writes or publishes books),” wrote Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York. “In sum, there is nothing meritorious about Plaintiffs’ situation, let alone urgent or irreparable. Defendant Watson cannot offer Plaintiffs the relief they seek as she bears no responsibility for The Cocktales Anthology they wish to enjoin from further publication. Defendant Crescent’s first allegedly infringing book was published over nine months ago. Plaintiffs have admitted that her use of “cocky” in titles would not likely cause confusion as to source or affiliation; moreover, she has publicly stated that she has not suffered lost sales.”

Online communities are wonderful but precarious things. One or two attacks by bad – or even well-meaning – actors can tip them over the edge and ruin them for everyone. In fact, Cocky-gate has encouraged other authors to try this tactics. One writer, Michael-Scott Earle, has attempted to register the words “Dragon Slayer” in a book title and there is now a Twitter bot that hunts for USPTO applications for words in titles.

Now that the cocky has been freed, however, it looks like the romance writers of the world are taking advantage of the opportunity to share their own cocky stories.

COCKY QUICKIES

You’ve heard about the scandal, you’ve read all of the reports. Now it’s time to forget all that hoopla and dive into these short, emotionally charged reads filled with cocky men and women in Cocky Quickies. https://t.co/Wi81M6SnXO #cocky #cockygate pic.twitter.com/UEirCxRdzC

— ღ Nicole Morgan ღ (@AuthorNicMorgan) June 17, 2018

Master Google Adwords like a boss

from Chriss H Feed https://ift.tt/2I4CuvI via IFTTT

[baguetteavocat]

i’m trying to explain me n pennys novel in a post but wow i’m bad at writing 😩

[moonskinshq-blog]

ABOUT:

→ COLORADO is a member of the STATE PACK. → His human name is UP TO PLAYER. → COLORADO identifies as UP TO PLAYER and uses UP TO PLAYER pronouns. → He DOES remember all of his past, and he DOES freely talk about it. → COLORADO has been described as CREATIVE, DYNAMIC,  and TRUSTWORTHY, as well as PASSIVE, PENSIVE, and CHEEKY. → COLORADO’S possible faceclaims are RYAN GUZMAN, MICHAEL TREVINO, and LOGAN HENDERSON and his age is UP TO PLAYER. → He currently DOES NOT have an imprint. → COLORADO is currently OPEN. 

BACKSTORY:

Throughout school, Colorado was known as the kid with his head buried in a book. Whether it was novels, comics, or graphic novels, Colorado spent all of his meager allowance on literature, too eager to be apart of made up worlds and ready to start his own.

Colorado couldn’t afford college, so instead he worked retail and wrote in all of his spare time. He was published before he could legally drink, under a pseudonym, and saved up every penny he earned. Five novels later, he had enough money to buy his parents a house and fly his family into the country to visit.

Only two day after his family landed in Boulder, Colorado fell incredibly ill. He was bedridden for a week before waking up naked in the mountains. Confused and terrified, his father sat him down and explained their heritage. Although neither one of his parents were wolves, the mutation was in their blood and it had been passed along to him.

So Colorado lived in a conflicted life. His writing suffered while he waited to recover his human memories, and Colorado felt that ache that something was missing. It was chance that he got on a plane to visit a real wolf settlement, and the State pack found him.

[firstdraftpod]

Ep 199: Robin Wasserman

First Draft Episode #199: Robin Wasserman

Robin Wasserman, New York Times bestselling author of adult novel Girls on Fire, as well as young adult novels The Waking Dark, The Book of Blood and Shadow, Hacking Harvard, The Cold Awakening series, the Seven Deadly Sins series. Her next novel, to come out with Scribner, is Mother Daughter Widow Wife.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

Robin loved Diane Wynne Jones and Stephen King as a kid, particularly Salem’s Lot, The Stand, and It. (Robin wrote for The Atlantic about, “How Stephen King Saved My Life”)

Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer, about whom Robin would gladly talk about forever. (And I would listen!)

Robin wrote her senior thesis about Dr. Timothy Leary, who co-conducted studies known as the Psilocybin Project, which sought to test whether psychedelics could cure the emotional pain of Western man. Leary was fired from Harvard when the ethics of his studies came into question, and went on to continue promoting the use of psychedelics as a thought leader in the 60s counter-cultural movement. Leary has written extensively about his philosophy, including in books like The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, his book with his partner in the experiments, Richard Alpert* (now known as Ram Dass); his autobiography, Flashbacks; and Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out. Many have written about him, including The Timothy Leary Project: Inside the Great Counterculture Experiment, compiled by the archivist Jennifer Ulrich; and Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In by Robert Forte.

*Of interest to me is that the TV show LOST paid homage to Ram Dass by naming a character Richard Alpert

David Levithan, who has and does host a regular drinks night for New York authors of young adult fiction. Robin went to one of these gatherings and met John Green before Looking for Alaska won the Printz.

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of Nirvana, the band that broke open grunge. Cobain died by suicide in 1994. If you’re interested in Cobain, or Nirvana, or the grunge scene generally, I personally recommend Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge by Mark Yarm, and the documentary Montage of Heck by Brett Morgen (about which Robin wrote, “The Art of Resurrection: Montage of Heck,” in the Los Angeles Times Review of Books).

The Satanic Panic was a phenomenon in the 1980s, wherein millions of Americans feared that an underground cult of Satan worshipers were practicing rituals and committing crimes. Robin particularly recommends Richard Beck’s We Believe the Children, which covers the phenomenon of, specifically, day care workers being charged with horrible accusations of child abuse. I’m obsessed with this phenomenon, and there are a ton of other podcasts that do a great job explaining it:

For a broad overview, the Stuff You Should Know podcast released an episode about The Satanic Panic

The Satanic Panic is a multi-part, deep dive into the phenomenon and many of the cases that came to define it (and their resources page isn’t to be missed)

The McMartin Child Abuse trial was one of the most massive and egregious examples of the Satanic Panic as a community-seizing exercise of hysteria. Both WNYC’s The Takeaway and Generation Why have devoted episodes to exploring the case. Documentary filmmaker Penny Lane (whose most recent film, Hail Satan?, is awesome) went on KCRW’s The Document to discuss the case, and the phenomenon.

Robin was inspired, in part, by an event of mass hysteria that afflicted dozens (of mostly high school cheerleaders) in LeRoy, New York, a phenomenon covered in the New York Times and Slate. Robin wrote about the phenomenon for the Los Angeles Times Review of Books (“Girl Trouble”), which is a non-fiction piece on the history of hysteria and a review of The Fever by Megan Abbott. Another book written about that phenomenon is The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas (listen to Kara’s episodes of First Draft here and here).

The West Memphis Three was another case of hysteria leading to false convictions, in which three men in West Memphis, Arkansas were held responsible for the deaths of three young boys. The trial was controversial, and the three convicted men were released after serving more than 18 years in prison. The case is covered in a modern classic of documentary filmmaking, a trio of docs that begins with Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.

The concept of “kindred spirits” put forth by Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery led Robin to some dysfunctional concepts of female friendship as a young woman

Holly Black, who Robin calls “the queen of life modeling exercises” (listen to Holly Black’s First Draft episode here), asked her to write out what author she’d like to be. Robert Cormier and Neil Gaiman were among the many different answers to that question. Robin threw out that she’d like to be a cross between Michael Chabon and Joss Whedon.

What/If, the TV show that Robin wrote for, is now available to watch on Netflix!

Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni

Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

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Thanks again!

Listen now!

[gta-5-cheats]

The long Cocky-gate nightmare is over

New Post has been published on http://secondcovers.com/the-long-cocky-gate-nightmare-is-over/

The long Cocky-gate nightmare is over

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

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I’ve been wanting to write about Cocky-gate for some time now but the story – a row between self-published authors that degenerated into ridiculousness – seems finally over and perhaps we can all get some perspective. The whole thing started in May when a self-published romance author, Faleena Hopkins, began attempting to enforce her copyright on books that contained “cocky” in the title. This included, but was not limited to, Cocky Cowboy, Cocky Biker, and Cocky Roomie, all titles in Hopkins oeuvre.

Hopkins filed a trademark for the use of the word Cocky in romance titles and began attacking other others who used the word cocky, including Jamila Jasper who wrote a book called Cocky Cowboy and received an email from Hopkins.

After taking up the cause on Twitter and creating a solid example of Streisand Effect, Jasper changed the title of her book to The Cockiest Cowboy To Have Ever Cocked. But other authors were hit by cease and desist letters and even Amazon stepped in briefly as well and took down multiple titles for a short time.

From the Guardian:

Pajiba reported on Monday that the author Nana Malone had been asked to change the title of her novel Mr Cocky, while TL Smith and Melissa Jane’s Cocky Fiancé has been renamed Arrogant Fiancé. Other writers claimed that Hopkins had reported them to Amazon, resulting in their books being taken down from the site.

This went on for a number of weeks with the back and forth verging on the comical…

Hubby: What ya doin’ honey? Me: Working on a dystopian short story inspired by #cockygate. Hubby: Is it called The Cocky Were-Rooster? Me:… Me: Dammit! Now I have to write that!

True Story. It wound up being “Diary of a Cocky Werecock” https://t.co/qU5XR4Ol4g

Shop On SecondCovers

.eokzn5b28b6a13381e margin: 5px; padding: 0px; @media screen and (min-width: 1201px) .eokzn5b28b6a13381e display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 993px) and (max-width: 1200px) .eokzn5b28b6a13381e display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) .eokzn5b28b6a13381e display: block; @media screen and (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 768px) .eokzn5b28b6a13381e display: block; @media screen and (max-width: 767px) .eokzn5b28b6a13381e display: block;

— Lara Grey (@authorlaragrey) June 16, 2018

to the serious.

I am so freakin’ pissed. Candace Blevins’ new book, Cocky Queen, was removed from B&N, iBooks, and Kobo.

IT’S NOT EVEN IN ROMANCE, IT’S WOMEN’S FICTION! #CockyGate pic.twitter.com/LkXl9Ypo3w

— Bianca-Quietly Loud-Sommerland 🏒🏳️‍🌈 (@BSommerland) June 18, 2018

Hopkins went to court to defend her trademark and then bumped up against the powerful Author’s Guild who supported three defendants including a publicist who was incorrectly named as the publisher of one of the offending titles, The Cocktales Anthology.

“Beyond the obvious issues with the merits, it is evident from the face of the complaint that Plaintiffs failed to conduct a reasonable pre-filing investigation before racing to the courthouse. Indeed, the number and extent of defects alone call into question whether the filing was made in good faith. Plaintiffs’ lack of due diligence failed to uncover the stark difference between a publisher and a publicist, i.e., non-party best-selling author Penny Reid is the former, while Defendant Jennifer Watson is the latter (Ms. Watson’s website even states that she provides “publicist and marketing services” and nowhere indicates that she writes or publishes books),” wrote Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York. “In sum, there is nothing meritorious about Plaintiffs’ situation, let alone urgent or irreparable. Defendant Watson cannot offer Plaintiffs the relief they seek as she bears no responsibility for The Cocktales Anthology they wish to enjoin from further publication. Defendant Crescent’s first allegedly infringing book was published over nine months ago. Plaintiffs have admitted that her use of “cocky” in titles would not likely cause confusion as to source or affiliation; moreover, she has publicly stated that she has not suffered lost sales.”

Online communities are wonderful but precarious things. One or two attacks by bad – or even well-meaning – actors can tip them over the edge and ruin them for everyone. In fact, Cocky-gate has encouraged other authors to try this tactics. One writer, Michael-Scott Earle, has attempted to register the words “Dragon Slayer” in a book title and there is now a Twitter bot that hunts for USPTO applications for words in titles.

Now that the cocky has been freed, however, it looks like the romance writers of the world are taking advantage of the opportunity to share their own cocky stories.

[latestnews2018-blog]

The long Cocky-gate nightmare is over

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/the-long-cocky-gate-nightmare-is-over/

The long Cocky-gate nightmare is over

I’ve been wanting to write about Cocky-gate for some time now but the story – a row between self-published authors that degenerated into ridiculousness – seems finally over and perhaps we can all get some perspective. The whole thing started in May when a self-published romance author, Faleena Hopkins, began attempting to enforce her copyright on books that contained “cocky” in the title. This included, but was not limited to, Cocky Cowboy, Cocky Biker, and Cocky Roomie, all titles in Hopkins oeuvre.

Hopkins filed a trademark for the use of the word Cocky in romance titles and began attacking other others who used the word cocky, including Jamila Jasper who wrote a book called Cocky Cowboy and received an email from Hopkins.

After taking up the cause on Twitter and creating a solid example of Streisand Effect, Jasper changed the title of her book to The Cockiest Cowboy To Have Ever Cocked. But other authors were hit by cease and desist letters and even Amazon stepped in briefly as well and took down multiple titles for a short time.

From the Guardian:

Pajiba reported on Monday that the author Nana Malone had been asked to change the title of her novel Mr Cocky, while TL Smith and Melissa Jane’s Cocky Fiancé has been renamed Arrogant Fiancé. Other writers claimed that Hopkins had reported them to Amazon, resulting in their books being taken down from the site.

This went on for a number of weeks with the back and forth verging on the comical…

Hubby: What ya doin’ honey? Me: Working on a dystopian short story inspired by #cockygate. Hubby: Is it called The Cocky Were-Rooster? Me:… Me: Dammit! Now I have to write that!

True Story. It wound up being “Diary of a Cocky Werecock” https://t.co/qU5XR4Ol4g

— Lara Grey (@authorlaragrey) June 16, 2018

to the serious.

I am so freakin’ pissed. Candace Blevins’ new book, Cocky Queen, was removed from B&N, iBooks, and Kobo.

IT’S NOT EVEN IN ROMANCE, IT’S WOMEN’S FICTION! #CockyGate pic.twitter.com/LkXl9Ypo3w

— Bianca-Quietly Loud-Sommerland 🏒🏳️‍🌈 (@BSommerland) June 18, 2018

Hopkins went to court to defend her trademark and then bumped up against the powerful Author’s Guild who supported three defendants including a publicist who was incorrectly named as the publisher of one of the offending titles, The Cocktales Anthology.

“Beyond the obvious issues with the merits, it is evident from the face of the complaint that Plaintiffs failed to conduct a reasonable pre-filing investigation before racing to the courthouse. Indeed, the number and extent of defects alone call into question whether the filing was made in good faith. Plaintiffs’ lack of due diligence failed to uncover the stark difference between a publisher and a publicist, i.e., non-party best-selling author Penny Reid is the former, while Defendant Jennifer Watson is the latter (Ms. Watson’s website even states that she provides “publicist and marketing services” and nowhere indicates that she writes or publishes books),” wrote Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York. “In sum, there is nothing meritorious about Plaintiffs’ situation, let alone urgent or irreparable. Defendant Watson cannot offer Plaintiffs the relief they seek as she bears no responsibility for The Cocktales Anthology they wish to enjoin from further publication. Defendant Crescent’s first allegedly infringing book was published over nine months ago. Plaintiffs have admitted that her use of “cocky” in titles would not likely cause confusion as to source or affiliation; moreover, she has publicly stated that she has not suffered lost sales.”

Online communities are wonderful but precarious things. One or two attacks by bad – or even well-meaning – actors can tip them over the edge and ruin them for everyone. In fact, Cocky-gate has encouraged other authors to try this tactics. One writer, Michael-Scott Earle, has attempted to register the words “Dragon Slayer” in a book title and there is now a Twitter bot that hunts for USPTO applications for words in titles.

Now that the cocky has been freed, however, it looks like the romance writers of the world are taking advantage of the opportunity to share their own cocky stories.

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

[theinvinciblenoob]

I’ve been wanting to write about Cocky-gate for some time now but the story – a row between self-published authors that degenerated into ridiculousness – seems finally over and perhaps we can all get some perspective. The whole thing started in May when a self-published romance author, Faleena Hopkins, began attempting to enforce her copyright on books that contained “cocky” in the title. This included, but was not limited to, Cocky Cowboy, Cocky Biker, and Cocky Roomie, all titles in Hopkins oeuvre.

Hopkins filed a trademark for the use of the word Cocky in romance titles and began attacking other others who used the word cocky, including Jamila Jasper who wrote a book called Cocky Cowboy and received an email from Hopkins.

After taking up the cause on Twitter and creating a solid example of Streisand Effect, Jasper changed the title of her book to The Cockiest Cowboy To Have Ever Cocked. But other authors were hit by cease and desist letters and even Amazon stepped in briefly as well and took down multiple titles for a short time.

From the Guardian:

Pajiba reported on Monday that the author Nana Malone had been asked to change the title of her novel Mr Cocky, while TL Smith and Melissa Jane’s Cocky Fiancé has been renamed Arrogant Fiancé. Other writers claimed that Hopkins had reported them to Amazon, resulting in their books being taken down from the site.

This went on for a number of weeks with the back and forth verging on the comical…

Hubby: What ya doin' honey? Me: Working on a dystopian short story inspired by #cockygate. Hubby: Is it called The Cocky Were-Rooster? Me:… Me: Dammit! Now I have to write that!

True Story. It wound up being "Diary of a Cocky Werecock" https://t.co/qU5XR4Ol4g

— Lara Grey (@authorlaragrey) June 16, 2018

to the serious.

I am so freakin' pissed. Candace Blevins' new book, Cocky Queen, was removed from B&N, iBooks, and Kobo.

IT'S NOT EVEN IN ROMANCE, IT'S WOMEN'S FICTION! #CockyGate pic.twitter.com/LkXl9Ypo3w

— Bianca-Quietly Loud-Sommerland (@BSommerland) June 18, 2018

Hopkins went to court to defend her trademark and then bumped up against the powerful Author’s Guild who supported three defendants including a publicist who was incorrectly named as the publisher of one of the offending titles, The Cocktales Anthology.

“Beyond the obvious issues with the merits, it is evident from the face of the complaint that Plaintiffs failed to conduct a reasonable pre-filing investigation before racing to the courthouse. Indeed, the number and extent of defects alone call into question whether the filing was made in good faith. Plaintiffs’ lack of due diligence failed to uncover the stark difference between a publisher and a publicist, i.e., non-party best-selling author Penny Reid is the former, while Defendant Jennifer Watson is the latter (Ms. Watson’s website even states that she provides “publicist and marketing services” and nowhere indicates that she writes or publishes books),” wrote Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York. “In sum, there is nothing meritorious about Plaintiffs’ situation, let alone urgent or irreparable. Defendant Watson cannot offer Plaintiffs the relief they seek as she bears no responsibility for The Cocktales Anthology they wish to enjoin from further publication. Defendant Crescent’s first allegedly infringing book was published over nine months ago. Plaintiffs have admitted that her use of “cocky” in titles would not likely cause confusion as to source or affiliation; moreover, she has publicly stated that she has not suffered lost sales.”

Online communities are wonderful but precarious things. One or two attacks by bad – or even well-meaning – actors can tip them over the edge and ruin them for everyone. In fact, Cocky-gate has encouraged other authors to try this tactics. One writer, Michael-Scott Earle, has attempted to register the words “Dragon Slayer” in a book title and there is now a Twitter bot that hunts for USPTO applications for words in titles.

Now that the cocky has been freed, however, it looks like the romance writers of the world are taking advantage of the opportunity to share their own cocky stories.

COCKY QUICKIES

You’ve heard about the scandal, you’ve read all of the reports. Now it’s time to forget all that hoopla and dive into these short, emotionally charged reads filled with cocky men and women in Cocky Quickies. https://t.co/Wi81M6SnXO #cocky #cockygate pic.twitter.com/UEirCxRdzC

— ღ Nicole Morgan ღ (@AuthorNicMorgan) June 17, 2018

via TechCrunch

[cbilluminati]

The Titan of Comics sent us the briefs and covers for their upcoming titles and we’re sharing with you. Here’s the Titan Comics Solicits for July 2017.

ROBOTECH #1

Writer: Brian Wood Artist: Marco Turini

FC • 32pp • $3.99 • On Sale July 26, 2017

Harmony Gold’s cult ‘80s TV series, ROBOTECH returns for all-new adventures!

Comic written by BRIAN WOOD (DMZ, BRIGGS LAND, NORTHLANDERS) and illustrated by MARCO TURINI!

Comic features classic characters RICK, LISA, MINMEI, ROY, CLAUDIA AND GLOVAL!

New comic series will delight original fans and newcomers alike!

COVER A: STANLEY ‘ARTGERM’ LAU COVER B: KARL KERSCHL COVER C: BLAIR SHEDD ACTION FIGURE VARIANT COVER D: MICHAEL DIALYNAS COVER E: WALTRIP BROS. RETRO VARIANT COVER F: BLUE LINE VERITECH SKETCH VARIANT COVER G: 1:10 VARIANT – KARL K​E​RSCHL (MINMEI)

​

#gallery-0-43 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-43 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 14%; } #gallery-0-43 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-43 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

THE DEATH OF STALIN

Writer: Fabien Nury Artist: Thierry Robin HC, 120pp, $24.99

On Sale: June 28, 2017 ISBN: 9781785863400

The graphic novel that inspired the new Armando Iannucci movie which includes an all-star cast – Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin, and Jeffrey Tambor.

Fear, corruption and treachery abound in this political satire set in the aftermath of Stalin’s death in the Soviet Union in 1953.

When the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, has a stroke – the political gears begin to turn, plunging the super-state into darkness, uncertainty and near civil war. The struggle for supreme power will determine the fate of the nation and of the world. And it all really happened.

Doctor Who Ghost Stories #4 (part 4 of 4)

Writer George Mann Artists Dennis Calero & Dijjo Lima

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 5, 2017

FINAL ISSUE OF THE HIT STORY featuring the doctor, Lucy, and the super-powered grant from the 2016 Christmas special! What part of grant’s secret past has returned to threaten the universe?

COVER A: SIMON MYERS

COVER B: PHOTO COVER

COVER C: FER CENTURION AND CARLOS CABRERA

#gallery-0-44 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-44 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-44 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-44 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Tenth Doctor #3.7 (part 2 of 3)

Writer Nick Abadzis Artists Giorgia Sposito & Arianna Florean

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

SECOND INSTALLMENT OF THE BRAND-NEW STORY ARC!

NEW ADVENTURES OF THE TENTH DOCTOR, AS PLAYED BY DAVID TENNANT!

COVER A: ROBERT HACK

COVER B: PHOTO COVER

COVER C: BLAIR SHEDD

#gallery-0-45 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-45 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-45 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-45 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Eleventh Doctor #3.9 (part 1 of 1)

Writer Alex Paknadel Artists  I.N.J. Culbard and Triona Farrell

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale August 30, 2017

The Sapling continues to  grow, under the influence of the Doctor and Alice – but can it suppress its programmed instincts for mass-destruction? When the three take a trip to the most inhospitable spot in the universe, the truthwill come out!

COVER A: BLAIR SHEDD

COVER B: PHOTO COVER

COVER C: ANTONIO FUSO

#gallery-0-46 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-46 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-46 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-46 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Twelfth Doctor #3.6 (part 2 of 3)

Writer Richard Dinnick

Artists Brian Williamson & Hi-Fi

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale August 2, 2017

NEW ADVENTURES FEATURING THE TWELFTH DOCTOR, AS PLAYED BY PETER CAPALDI, AND FEATURING ALL-NEW TV COMPANION BILL, PLAYED BY PEARL MACKIE!

COVER A: BLAIR SHEDD

COVER B: PHOTO COVER

COVER C: ARIANNA FLOREAN

#gallery-0-47 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-47 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-47 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-47 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Doctor Who: Supremacy of the Cybermen TPB

Writers George Mann & Cavan Scott

Artists Alessandro Vitti, Walter Geovanni, Nicola Righi, & Comicraft

SC • 128pp • $16.99

On Sale Sept 5, 2017

ISBN 9781785856853

For the Cybermen’s 50th Anniversary…

YOU WILL BE DELETED!

Exiled from Gallifrey at the very end of Time, Rassilon, fallen leader of the Time Lords, has been captured by the last of

the Cybermen.

Now the Cybermen have access to time travel. With it, every defeat is now a victory. Every foe is now dead — or Cyberised.

Twelfth Doctor Vol 07 HC The Terror Beneath

Writers George Mann & James Peaty

Artists Mariano Laclaustra

& Warren Pleece

HC • 112pp • $22.99

On Sale August 30, 2017

ISBN 9781785860829

Fan-favorite comics companion (and space bassist of the far future) Hattie returns for a story involving nightmarish denizens of the deep, shambling seaweed, creepy British seaside towns, and the best fish and chips of the 1970s!

Torchwood Archive Vol 02

Writers Nick Abadzis, Roger Gibson, Oli Smith, Gary Russell, Paul Grist

Artists Paul Grist, Vince Danks, Adrian Salmon, John Ridgway,

Brian Williamson

HC • 104pp • $16.99

On Sale Sept 13, 2017

ISBN 9781785861628

Captain Jack Harkness and the rest of the Torchwood team face a series of strange and

terrifying cases that test their abilities!

INCLUDES PREVIOUSLY UNCOLLECTED WEB-COMICS!

COVER: IAN CHURCHILL

SHERLOCK: THE BLIND BANKER TPB

Writer Steve Thompson

Artist Jay.

Co-creators Mark Gatiss and

Steven Moffat

SC • 224pp • $12.99

On Sale Sept 13, 2017

ISBN 9781785856167

Collection of the brilliant manga adaptation of the fanatically followed TV show, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit). 

PENNY DREADFUL #4

PART 4 (OF 4)

Writer Chris King

Artist Jesús Hervás

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 5, 2017

Written by Penny Dreadful TV series Co-Executive Producer Chris King, with art by Jesús Hervás(Sons of Anarchy). 

Concluding the story directly after the shocking events of Penny Dreadful’s Season Three TV finale! 

COVER A: ELENORA CARLINI

COVER B: PHOTO

COVER C: ABIGAIL HARDING

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NORMANDY GOLD #2

PART 2 (OF 5)

Writers Megan Abbott & Alison Gaylin

Artists Steve Scott & Lovern Kindzierski

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

Brand new Hard Case CrimeSeries!

When her younger sister becomes the center of a brutal murder case, tough-as-nails SHERIFF NORMANDY GOLD is forced to dive headfirst into the seedy world of 1970s prostitution.

COVER A: CLAUDIA IANNICIELLO

COVER B: STEVE SCOTT

COVER C: CLAUDIA CARANFA

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – MILLENNIUM #2

PART 2 (OF 2)

Writer Sylvain Runberg

Artist Jose Homs

FC • 68pp • $5.99

On Sale July 26, 2017

Stieg Larsson’s scandi-noir thriller in a brand-new comics adaptation!

JUST ANNOUNCED! Sequel to the critically acclaimed 2011 movie adaptation! 

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB is due to hit cinemas in 2018!

COVER A: CLAUDIA IANNICIELLO

COVER B: JOSE HOMS

RIVERS OF LONDON: DETECTIVE STORIES #2

Writers Ben Aaronovitch & Andrew Cartmel

Artist Lee Sullivan

Colorist Luis Guerrero

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

Self-contained magical crimes, as recounted by DETECTIVE PETER GRANT to his superiors, as he takes the detective exam!

If you’ve ever wanted to try the mysterious world of RIVERS OF LONDON, this is the perfect opportunity to get on board

COVER A: GARY ERSKINE AND YEL ZAMOR

COVER B: LEE SULLIVAN

ANNO DRACULA #5

PART 5 (OF 5)

Writer Kim Newman

Artist Paul McCaffrey

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 26, 2017

Conclusion to the all-new comic series based on the best selling ANNO DRACULA novels by Kim Newman!

Written by creator Kim Newman with art by Paul McCaffrey (THE THIRD DOCTOR).

COVER A: PAUL MCCAFFREY

COVER B: JEFF ZORNOW

COVER C: TOM MANDRAKE

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THE LOST FLEET: CORSAIR #2

PART 2 (OF 4)

Writer Jack Campbell

Artists Andre Siregar and Bambang Irawan

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 5, 2017

The critically acclaimed sci-fi novel series comes to comics!

Written by JACK CAMPBELL (THE LOST FLEET) and illustrated by ANDRE SIREGAR (MARTIAN COMICS, SEVERA) and SEBASTIAN CHENG (REVOLUTION, ORPHAN BLACK)!

COVER A: ALEX RONALD

COVER B: WRAP-AROUND COVER

COVER C: MARC LAMING

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THE FOREVER WAR #6

PART 6 (OF 6)

Writer Joe Haldeman

Artist Marvano

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 19, 2017

Conclusion of the series based on the award-winning THE FOREVER WAR NOVEL by JOE HALDEMAN, who wrote this series!

COVER A: STEVE KURTH

COVER B: NICK PERCIVAL

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IAN LIVINGSTONE’S FREEWAY FIGHTER #3

PART 3 (OF 4)

Writer Andi Ewington

Artist Simon Coleby

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

New story based on the cult-favorite series of game books written by ANDI EWINGTON (Exmortis, Sunflower) and illustrated by SIMON COLEBY (Judge Dredd, The Royals)!

COVER A: BEN OLIVER

COVER B: SIMON COLEBY

COVER C: BEN WILLSHER

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MYCROFT HOLMES AND THE APOCALYPSE HANDBOOK TPB

Writers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Raymond Obstfeld

Artist Joshua Cassara

SC • 128pp • $16.99

On Sale Aug 9, 2017

ISBN 9781785853005

NBA all-star legend KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR brings his best selling MYCROFT HOLMES to comics!

BEST OF CROCK HC

Writer/Artist Bill Rechin, Don Wilder

FC & B&W • 13 x 13 • 240pp • $29.99

On Sale Sept 6, 2017

ISBN 9781785862120

Featuring the best of the CROCK sundays and dailies published between 1975 and 2011!

Crock chronicles the adventures of COMMANDANT CROCK and the assortment of hilarious Legionnaires stationed at a grim, desolate outpost. The greatest and longest-running parody of the Foreign Legion classic, BEAU GESTE.

BLOOD BOWL: MORE GUTS, MORE GLORY! #3

PART 3 (OF 4)

Writer Nick Kyme

Artist Jack Jadson

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

Bone-crunching sports action in the fantasy world of WARHAMMER! WRITTEN BY NICK KYME (WARHAMMER 40,000) WITH ART BY JACK JADSON (TEEN TITANS, BIRDS OF PREY)!

COVER A: CONNOR MAGILL

COVER B: TAZIO BETTIN & LUIS GUERRERO

WARHAMMER 40,000:  DAWN OF WAR III #4

Writer Ryan O’Sullivan

Artists Daniel Indro & Kevin Enhart

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale August 2, 2017

WRITTEN BY RYAN O’SULLIVAN (TURNCOAT, EISENHORN: XENOS) & ILLUSTRATED BY DANIEL INDRO (VIKINGS, DOCTOR WHO)!

NEW WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR III VIDEO GAME RELEASING SOON!

COVER A: DAVID SONDRED

COVER B: PASQUALE QUALANO

COVER C: CONNOR MAGILL

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WARHAMMER 40,000 VOL 2 TPB

Writer Ryan O’Sullivan

Artists Daniel Indro & Kevin Enhart

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale August 2, 2017

BY SUPERSTAR WRITER GEORGE MANN (WARHAMMER 40,000 NOVELS; DARK SOULS), WITH ART BY TAZIO BETTIN (INDEPENDENCE DAY)!

COVER: CONNOR MAGILL

DARK SOULS: THE BREATH OF ANDOLUS – ARTIST’S EDITION HC

Writer George Mann

Artist Alan Quah

HC • 11 x 7 • 128pp • $29.99

On Sale Sept 6, 2017

ISBN 9781785861642

Marvel at the breathtaking artwork by alan quah in this phenomenal Black & White oversized hardcover edition of Dark Souls, Vol.1: The Breath of Andolus!

Join Fira – a battle-hardened warrior – as she embarks upon a perilous quest to save her ailing kingdom, fighting countless hoards of demonic foes along the way!

LITTLE NIGHTMARES #3

PART 3 (OF 4)

Writer John Shackleford

Artist Aaron Alexovich

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

Inspired by the smash hit video game of 2017, adventurer ‘Six’ – trapped in the mysterious, deadly Maw – encounters others captured by The Ferryman… but do their stories offer a way out?

VIDEOGAME DUE FOR RELEASE APRIL 28, 2017!

COVER A: AARON ALEXOVICH

COVER B: RYAN HALL

COVER C: THOMAS BOATWRIGHT

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TEKKEN #3

PART 3 (OF 4)

Writer Cavan Scott

Artist Andie Tong

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale July 12, 2017

ALL NEW COMIC SERIES BASED ON THE ICONIC FIGHTING GAME FRANCHISE!

VIDEOGAME DUE FOR RELEASE JUNE 2, 2017!

COVER A: ANTON K – NOT FINAL COVER

COVER B: PAOLO VILENELLI – NOT FINAL COVER

COVER C: ANDIE TONG – NOT FINAL COVER

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ASSASSINS CREED: UPRISING #7

PART 3 (OF 4)

Writers Dan Watters and Alex Paknadel

Artist Jose Holder

FC • 32pp • $3.99

On Sale Sept 6, 2017

SECOND INSTALLMENT OF THE BRAND-NEW STORY ARC IN THE CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED UPRISING SERIES!

WRITERS ALEX PAKNADEL (ARCADIA, DOCTOR WHO) AND DAN WATTERS (LIMBO, DARK SOULS) ALONG WITH ASSASSIN’S CREED STORYBOARD ARTIST JOSE HOLDER!

COVER A: SUNSETAGAIN

COVER B: GEORGE CALTSOUDAS

COVER C: VERITY GLASS

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ASSASSIN’S CREED: REFLECTIONS VOL 1 TPB

Writer Ian Edginton

Artist Valeria Favoccia

SC • 112pp • $16.99

On Sale August 23, 2017

ISBN 9781782763147

MINI SERIES WRITTEN BY IAN EDGINTON AND ILLUSTRATED BY VALERIA FAVOCCIA!

FEATURING FAN-FAVORITE ASSASSIN’S CREED GAME CHARACTERS ALTAÏR, EZIO AUDITORE, EDWARD KENWAY, CONNOR, AND MORE!

COVER: SUNSETAGAIN

THE BOOK OF BALLADS THE ORIGINAL ART EDITION HC

Writers: Emma Bull, Charles de Lint, Neil Gaiman, Elaine Lee, Sharyn

McCrumb, Delia Sherman, Jeff Smith, Lee Smith, Midori Snyder, Jane

Yolen

Artist: Charles Vess

HC • 10 x 15 • FC & B&W • 160pp

On Sale Sept 13, 2017

ISBN 9781783294428

ARTIST CHARLES VESS COMES TOGETHER WITH AN ALL-STAR ENSEMBLE OF GROUNDBREAKING WRITERS TO PRODUCE A SPECIAL ART EDITION BASED UPON SONG AND FOLKTALES OF ENGLISH, IRISH, AND SCOTTISH TRADITION!

FEATURING WORK BY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS, AWARD WINNERS, AND MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY. TOP NAMES INCLUDE: NEIL GAIMAN (SANDMAN), JANE YOLEN (LOST GIRLS, BRIAR ROSE), SHARYN MCCRUMB (THE BALLAD OF FRANKIE SILVER), JEFF SMITH (BONE), AND CHARLES VESS (STARDUST)!

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN: THE FRED FREDERICKS DAILIES

VOL 01 HC

Writer Lee Falk

Artist Fred Fredericks

HC • 9 x 11 • 160pp • $49.99

On Sale Sept 13, 2017

ISBN 9781785862908

TRUE CLASSIC AND A STANDARD AMONG COMIC STRIPS, MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN HAS BEEN MYSTIFYING READERS SINCE 1934! MANDRAKE USES HIS LEGENDARY POWERS OF HYPNOTISM AND

ILLUSION TO COMBAT CRIME, AND HAS WORKED HIS DEBONAIR MAGIC TO FIND A PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF COMIC STRIP FANS EVERYWHERE!

DRAWN BY THE LEGENDARY FRED FREDERICKS, THIS FIRST HARDCOVER COLLECTION BRINGS TOGETHER THE CLASSIC STRIPS DRAWN BY FREDRICKS FROM 1965 – 1967!

TOTAL TANK GIRL OMNIBUS

Writer Alan Martin

Artists Jim Mahfood, Warwick

Johnson-Cadwell and Rufus Dayglo

FC • 288pp • $24.99

On Sale Sept 13, 2017

ISBN 9781785863059

A HIGHLY TOXIC 288-PAGE SPILLAGE OF TANK GIRL CORRUPTION. COLLECTING THREE GRAPHIC NOVELS – EVERYBODY LOVES TANK GIRL, SOLID STATE TANK GIRL, AND BAD WIND RISING – TOTAL TANK GIRL PRESENTS A NOXIOUS TOUR THROUGH TANK GIRL LAND; A PLACE WHERE SAVING THE UNIVERSE WITH DIRTY UNDERWEAR AND PILOTING A SPACESHIP INSIDE YOUR BOYFRIEND’S TESTICLE ARE EVERYDAY EVENTS. TIMES ARE TOUGH. IF YOU WANT TO SURVIVE, YOU NEED THIS BOOK.

via Titan Comics

ROBOTECH and THE DEATH OF STALIN Spotlight the Titan Comics Solicits for July 2017

The Titan of Comics sent us the briefs and covers for their upcoming titles and we’re sharing with you.

ROBOTECH and THE DEATH OF STALIN Spotlight the Titan Comics Solicits for July 2017 The Titan of Comics sent us the briefs and covers for their upcoming titles and we're sharing with you.