LOST CONTINENT LIBRARY

I'm Still Here!

2012-01-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

I've been having computer issues but am buying a new one in a few weeks, so I will be returning regularly! Between now and then, I'll be checking in as I can...

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-28T21:33:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I've been busy doing other things over Christmas and heading toward New Year's Eve. I'll be back soon with more adventure news and stuff very soon!

Polar History Report

2011-12-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

Today is the 100th Aniversary of Roald Amundsen reaching the Antarctic pole. Read about this great adventurer here

Real Life Adventurer

2011-12-11T02:53:00.001-08:00

This is Sean Flynn, son of legendary actor Errol Flynn....Sean went into acting, starring in adventure films like his father. But he got bored with acting and went to Africa to become a guide and big game hunter, then traded that to be a game warden. Still not satisfied, Sean became a photojournalist and went to Vietnam.

Sean didn't just stand back and document the war as an objective observer, he was known for being a little closer to the action. Working for Paris-Match then for Time Magazine, Sean soon earned a reputation for being willing to risk his neck to get the best images, even going into combat. In 1966, he was wounded
and left the war long enough to recuperate and star in his last film. Sean returned to Vietnam later that same year and made a parachute jump with the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division -- and then he went to Israel to cover the war there in 1967.

Sean returned to Vietnam to make a documentary and in 1970 headed into Cambodia with another journalist, Dana Stone, on motorcycles. In April of that year, Sean and Stone were captured by Communist guerillas and were never heard from again. Sean's mother, actress Lili Damita, spent a lot of money searching for her son, to no avail. Sean was declared dead in 1984 and to this day his remains have never been found.

No matter your politics on the war, Sean Flynn ranks among those adventure movie actors who walked the walk.

Adventure Theater Premier

2011-12-08T01:22:00.001-08:00

I Netflixed this movie last year and loved it. Finding it online in its entirety was too good not to share. So please enjoy one of Frtiz Lang's greatest films...

CLICK ON IMAGE

Explorer of the Month

2011-12-02T18:11:00.001-08:00

It's fitting that we kick off our new monthly honor this December with that icon of the Christmas season:

Yukon Cornelius

What adventure fan does not look forward to the annual viewing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, especially the middle act which is nothing less than a classic expeditionary quest? It has always been my favorite holiday season special for this very fact. Rudolph and Hermy have given up on their lives in the North Pole and set out for horizons even farther. The imagery is evocative of every polar fantasy adventure you can imagine and would not be complete without our red-bearded hero. When the reindeer and elf meet up with Cornelius, the story officially becomes an adventure tale, as far as I'm concerned.

Complete with arctic gear, including pistol and axe and a dog sled, Yukon Cornelius is the quintessential adventurer and guide. It's like he stepped out of a Jack London novel. And just when milquetoast viewers think he's nothing but a "silver 'n gold" hound, Yukon Cornelius shows his intrepid courage and takes on the Abominable (Snow Creature) in defense of his friends. Naturally, being a man of practical knowledge and self-confidence, Yukon Cornelius literally bounces back, ultimately displaying his command over nature through understanding of the creature and providing it a place in polite society with a productive function (as opposed to mere existential namby-pambyism).

So, this month, we salute Yukon Cornelius!

Not Only Westerns!

2011-11-30T18:59:00.001-08:00

Just in case some of you did not know, iconic writer of western tales Louis L'Amour was also quite an accomplished author of adventure fiction. Some years back I started collecting the well known series of his western books, with the brown covers, but only discovered Louis' adventure fiction in 2002, around the time I started LCL. Imagine my surprise when I learned that L'Amour was quite the pulp adventure writer!

I recommend West From Singapore and Fair Blows The Wind, but you can learn all about Louis L'Amour's fictional and real-life adventures at this great website:
L'Amour Adventures

Tsavo Maneaters In The Cinema

2011-11-22T00:06:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite adventure-themed movies was adapted from the real life story of the Tsavo Maneaters, two lions that stalked and preyed upon railroad workers in Africa in the late 19th Century.

" In March 1898 the British started building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. The project was led by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson. During the next nine months of construction, two maneless male Tsavo lions stalked the campsite, dragging Indian workers from their tents at night and devouring them. Crews tried to scare off the lions and built campfires and bomas of thorn fences around their camp for protection to keep the maneaters out, to no avail. The lions crawled through the thorn fences. After the new attacks, hundreds of workers fled from Tsavo, halting construction on the bridge. Patterson set traps and tried several times to ambush the lions at night from a tree. After repeated unsuccessful endeavors, he shot the first lion on December 9, 1898, with a Martini-Enfield .303 caliber rifle. Three weeks later, the second lion was found and killed. The first lion killed measured nine feet, eight inches (3 m) from nose to tip of tail. It took eight men to carry the carcass back to camp. The construction crew returned and completed the bridge in February 1899. The exact number of people killed by the lions is unclear. Patterson gave several figures, claiming that there were 135 victims" (Wikipedia)

The skins of the lions were sold in 1924 to the Chicago Field Museum, where they were reconstructed and remain on display.

Three adventure films have been produced from this story, each varying from the facts. In 1952, Arch Oboler made a 3D picture titled Bwana Devil. Starring Robert Stack, Nigel Bruce and Barbara Britton, this one sets the story in the early 20th Century, in British East Africa. Workers building Africa's first railroad must already endure intense heat and sickness when the lions start making trouble. Characters Jack Hayward and Dr. Angus Ross head up the venture and are none too happy about a pair of man-eating lions on the rampage and interfering with their progress. Hayward's attempts to curtail the slaughter prove unfruitful, the lions continue to feast at will. That's when the home office sends three big-game hunters to dispatch with these pesky lions, and they bring Jack's wife to complicate things a little further for him. Unfortunately for the game hunters, they are hunted and killed by the lions. Having had enough, Jack sets out to kill them. His face-off with the lions gives him a chance to save his wife and make points with her.

The second film inspired by the Tsavo maneaters story, is 1959's British production Killers of Kilimanjaro, starring Robert Taylor, Anne Aubrey and Anthony Newley. Taylor is in Africa to survey a route for a railroad and comes into conflict with Arabs because his company will not transport slaves on their railroad. The only part of the movie involving the lions is a brief sequence when workers on the expedition are attacked by a lion and Taylor shoots it. The rest of the movie is more focused on surveying the route in spite of sabotage and intrigues involving the Arab slave traders, plus attempts to emulate King Solomon's Mines and other African adventure films every chance they get, especially a 'brave white hunter standing calmly as spears are thrown at him' scene in a native village, just like in Mogambo with Clark Gable. Though not much of the Patterson stroy is here, the movie was allegedly inspired in part by African Bush Adventures by JA Hunter and Daniel P Mannix which features an account of the real Tsavo lions tale. Probably more interesting is that it was produced by Albert Broccoli and written by Richard Maibaum, who brought the world the James Bond series of films.

The third film based upon the Tsavo maneaters events is the only one that attempts to tell the real story. The 1996 release The Ghost And The Darkness stars Val Kilmer as John Patterson and Michael Douglas as a fictional master hunter. In this film, Patterson is the engineer brought in to finish a railroad bridge after lion attacks have caused the project to derail. Though Patterson dispatches with one lion early after his arrival, it is the Tsavo maneaters who begin to cause much more mayhem shortly after. This movie veers from fact when it has Patterson enlist the aid of the mystical Yankee game hunter portrayed by Douglas to help him hunt down the animals who have been picking off his men seemingly for sport. It gets creepy when they discover that the lions have been keeping trophies of their kills. After Patterson gleans much wisdom from his experience hunting with the cynical and haunted master hunter, the lions are finally brought down, but not without sacrifice.

Personally, I have always liked this film. Kilmer is good, Douglas is fun. It offers all the authentic attempts at the trappings and settings of Victorian Era colonial Africa. Screw Roger Ebert and the Razzie Awards. I disagree with their dismissal of this film. As a fan of adventure and adventure backdrops, G and D is one of the best of the 1990s.

Naturally, if you want the true story, there is the historical record. And you can still see the Tsavo Maneaters on display in Chicago.

Here's a 3D image from Bwana Devil:

Giant Birds

2011-11-21T15:51:00.001-08:00

Since here in the States we're celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I thought we should take a look at giant bird stories...

There have been various reports of giant birds sighted in the wilds or attacking humans. In some cases they may be exaggerated accounts of large predatory species of birds, but other cases may not be so. Native American customs include the legendary 'thunderbird' often depicted in totems and art. These thunderbirds got their name from the sound their wings make, and they are said to flash lightning from their eyes and live on mountaintops. They are symbols of strength and power.

But some say the legends were inspired by the real thing. Perhaps there were prehistoric holdouts in the early formative years of Native American culture, and perhaps there still are. This may explain some of the tales in modern times.

Wikipedia relates one of these accounts:

"There is a story that in April 1890, two cowboys in Arizona killed a giant birdlike creature with an enormous wingspan. It was said to have had smooth skin, featherless wings like a bat and a face that resembled an alligator. This description has some similarity to that of a prehistoric pterodactyl, an animal whose existence was known at the time. They are supposed to have dragged the carcass back to town, where it was pinned with wings outstretched across the entire length of a barn."

More recently:

"Among the most controversial reports is a July 25, 1977 account from Lawndale, Illinois. About 9 P.M. a group of three boys were at play in a residential back yard. Two large birds approached, and chased the boys. Two escaped unharmed, but the third boy, ten-year-old Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds reportedly clamped his shoulder with its claws, then lifted Lowe about two feet off the ground, carrying him some distance. Lowe fought against the bird, which released him."

It's always fun to see giant birds depicted in adventure films, like the Roc in a Sinbad movie by Ray Harryhausen.

So this Thursday, if you celebrate the holiday, enjoy your big bird!

Man Eating Plants

2011-11-20T01:56:00.001-08:00

Among the things you don't see much in adventure anymore, especially since the popularity of the Little Shop of Horrors musical from the movie of the same name, is the man-eating plant. According to Wikipedia, this jungle horror refers to " various legendary or cryptid carnivorous plants that are large enough to kill and consume a person or other large animal. In actuality, the carnivorous plant with the largest known traps is probably Nepenthes rajah which produces pitchers up to 38 cm (15 in) tall with a volume of up to 3.5 litres... This species may rarely trap small mammals..."

Usually attributed to an alleged letter written in the late 19th Century by a man named Carle Liche, which was reportedly printed in many journals of the day. According to this letter, Liche had been invited to a ritual by the cave-dwelling Mkoko tribesmen of Madagascar. Taken to a bend in a jungle river, Liche saw one of these dreaded brown man-eating trees growing 8 feet tall and shaped like a pineapple. With 12-foot leaves growing from the top and drooping to the ground, this hideous thing had spikes in its exposed sides and tendrils waved out from within. Liche wrote that he witnessed the woman to be sacrificed climbing to the top of the tree where she drank an oozing green liquid produced by the tree. As she drank, the long leaves wrapped around her body, enclosing her. The next thing Liche knew, the green fluid and the woman's blood were flowing down the tree and the Mkoko men began to enthusiastically lap it up like dogs. This intoxicated them into a 'hideous orgy' in which Liche elected not to participate.

Yikes!

Some Covers I Like

2011-11-15T22:49:00.001-08:00

Being a publisher, my favorite aspect of the work is creating a book cover. Naturally, I have some styles ranking among those which inspire me. Here are a few..

I'll have the cover art for my new novel posted very soon!

More to follow...

Just Got Back!

2011-11-15T01:42:00.001-08:00

Just got back to everything following the weekend's conference where I appeared to discuss my non-fiction books... Will catch up here on Tuesday! :)

Travel Vids

2011-11-10T14:15:00.001-08:00

Hey adventurers,

Lately I've been Netflixing travel vids and the most recent was another in the Rudy Maxa series. I recommend this series, if you haven't seen it. Rudy makes a good presentation and, like Rick Steves (a favorite of mine), Rudy knows how to ferret out those interesting facets of a destination that can make the experience.

Last night I watched the Argentina episode, specifically Buenos Aires and Mendoza. Argentina is one of the countries of South America I have not been to yet and I'm anxious to go. Even more so now. Associates of mine who have worked in B.A. have nothing but good memories.

Since I love Malbec wines, Mendoza is a must-see for me now.

Being a big fan of South America, I recommend you check out Rudy Maxa's Argentina episode, but also his entire series...

(I'll be back with a longer post on something before the weekend, but I'm speaking at a conference this Saturday and am preparing my presentation...)

Seeing Double (Quickie Movie Review)

2011-11-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

I thought I was losing it. This morning I turn on TCM and there's Victor Mature in fun on the Northwest Frontier, so naturally I figure it's Zarak, a film I reviewed here several months ago. I recognized his costume, and the costume of the British colonel, especially his chain mail epaulets, colorful sash and blue and orange turban. It had to be Zarak because there were the same locations and sets, right?

But something was off...

First of all, the schedule showed a different title, yet there was a 'Z' in it. I finally had to give up the fight and Google it. Sure enough, there as an answer and I wasn't insane!

The Bandit of Zhobe is a 1959 production featuring Victor Mature in virtually the same character, a noble bandit in the border territory of the Northwest Frontier, wrongly accused of crimes he didn't commit and righteously fighting for his people and his life -- wearing a turban through it all. This time around Vic's wife and child are killed by a rival warlord who blames the British. Vic, as 'Kasim', embarks on a campaign against the Victorian era redcoats commanded by Colonel Crowley, whose ridiculously pacifist daughter throws herself into the mix. What we end up with is a standard action yarn enjoyable for all the reasons folks like us here love standard action yarns: manly determination and gallantry in warfare, all set against an exotic backdrop with elegant Victorian touches here and there.

What you'll notice here is that Albert Broccoli produced both this film and Zarak, using much the same action action footage for both films. That explains the identical costumes and several shared sets and locations. The similarities are such that they could have filmed both movies at the same time. Broccoli, of course, went on to bring the James Bond franchise to the big screen just a few years after The Bandit of Zhobe.

Another thing to notice is Anthony Newley. His humorous yet resourceful British corporal would have fit nicely among the cast of Zulu or even The Man Who Would Be King.

The Bandit of Zhobe is a worthy expense of an hour and a half for the diehard adventure fan.

New Book At Last!

2011-11-05T02:24:00.000-07:00

I've started to write three different books in the past few months. Just couldn't get into them. They weren't firing me up. These days, you gotta be fired up about the material because the market has changed so drastically. It's not like there are publishers out there lining up for new content. And being a publisher myself, I have to consider what will be the smartest choice for me as a writer, i.e. what might sell best, what can I get into the market rather quickly, what will be worth the effort personally. Writing a novel is a commitment, so if I'm going to do it I must be energized by the material. The new Julius Corbin novel wasn't sparking me. I haven't finished the outline screenplay for The Jade Rabbit. I started a detective novel based on aspects of my real-life cases as a federal agent, and that does give me some juice, but it's still kind of in story development. So what to do?

Well, I opened a box of my writing dating back 29 years when I was in college -- and BAM! There it was. A very special project of which nearly 900 pages were written. As I read through it and organized everything, I found that I have a trilogy in this saga. And most exciting is that what will be the first book is the most developed. All I'm doing now is typing it into my computer and that is a revision in itself. The best part of it is that I am quite energized about this material and the commitment magnet is activated. This one is happening!

My goal is a Christmas Eve release and I'll announce the title as soon as I decide on what the first book will be titled. I will tell you that the entire saga, when finally in one fat 720-page volume, will be titled Stand And Deliver.

Now I'm happy

Desert Rat & Starlight Expedition

2011-11-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

This evening I had an unexpected adventure. I headed out to Yucca Valley to the Hi Desert Nature Museum to see my friend Greg Bishop's talk on the legendary Desert Rat, Harry Oliver. A set designer nominated for Oscars during his years in early Hollywood, Oliver was a popular colorful character in the desert areas out near Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. His Golden Gulch frontier exhibit in Balboa Park for a past expo became the inspiration for Knott's Berry Farm's original amusement park, as well as influencing Walt Disney's vision of Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom. Oliver is well known for publishing the Desert Rat Scrap Book, several samples of which were on hand during Greg's presentation. It was truly quite interesting.

After Greg's talk, I noticed-- to my astonishment-- an original album and scrapbook of photos from the World Columbian Exposition, also known as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair! For those of you who have read the Lost Continent Library trilogy by Sesh Heri, you will recognize this historical event as the location of much of the first book. The 1893 fairgrounds are where Tesla and Twain, et al, depart for Mars aboard an airship. Sealed in a glass case, I am making arrangements to return to the museum to have an inside look at these relics and will do a post upon my return.

Following the museum activity, I joined Greg and his good friends, including Barbara Harris who gives unique tours in the desert areas, for dinner at Kimi's Sushi. The conversation led to a pleasantly unexpected trip to Giant Rock (near The Integratron) where we watched shooting stars and climbed a hill of quartz crystal. I made new friends and had a great evening.

If you enjoy the Old West, take a gander at Harry Oliver and his life, as well as the Desert Rat...

'Empire of the Wheel'

2011-11-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

I'm speaking at the Lewis Library in Fontana, California, at 630PM this evening. The topic is my new book written with Richard B Spence. Check it out Amazon...

Empire of the Wheel

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2011-10-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Breath Of Fresh Air

2011-10-31T03:45:00.000-07:00

I've done beer reviews here, but this is the first restaurant review...

A couple of weeks ago, I ventured up into the San Bernardino Mountains to get away for an afternoon and do some research. So, I headed to Big Bear, having recently hitting the Arrowhead Oktoberfest for a beer and brat. It was a very nice day up in the mountains, much cooler than down in the valley. I rolled into Big Bear Village hoping for something interesting for a late lunch, but was disappointed to find a bunch of Mexican restaurants. I like Mexican food, but I get plenty of that down the hill. There were only one or two Italian restaurants, and only one German, which surprised me, considering the history of the mountain villages. Ideally, a Swiss restaurant would be perfect up there, as it is an alpine forest environment, but that's asking too much, apparently. What was I to do? Clearly the ski freak tattooed bros and their insipid hole-punches won this battle, for nothing says 'flatlander from LA or Orange County' like nachos and beer and tacos. It looked like I was just going to have to go down the hill to find something I'd like.

And there it was!

I couldn't believe it. An Indian/Nepalese restaurant in Big Bear Village!

The Himalayan Restaurant is everything I'd hoped to find that day. Being an adventure guy, the place offered one of my favorite cuisines in an atmosphere perfect to my tastes. The employees were all authentic, too. No white guys in silk shirts (as I have encountered in Sarajevo Chinese restaurants...), nor Latinos passing themselves off as Nepalese. The food and presentation were the real deal and real delicious! I had a basic Tandoori chicken platter, fresh nan bread, and a tasty spicy lemonade. The decor made me forget I was in California for an hour. Not only is the restaurant nicely appointed, there is a Tibetan/Nepalese gift shop and a classic explorers lounge bar called 'The Bombay Club'. The best part is that every table filled and more people were lining up outside, while I was there.

If you find yourself in the San Bernardino Mountains and you just can't take another Mexican restaurant, I recommend The Himalayan Restaurant...I know I will be going back very soon!

I'm Back!!

2011-10-30T19:12:00.001-07:00

OK,

Got my computer crisis remedied and NOW I will be posting again regularly...Seriously :)

Back Soon!

2011-10-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I have been experiencing tenacious virus issues on my computers but I will be back with a movie review and a restaurant review sometime this weekend!

:)

Stoker's Jewel

2011-10-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

As you know, I like adventure horror, or even horror with adventure trappings. Everyone is familiar with 'Dracula', but author Bram Stoker also penned a classic mummy tale, 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars', a 1903 tale about an archeologist who tries to resurrect an ancient Egyptian queen from the dead. Complications arise from the apparent possession of the archeologist's daughter by the queen's spirit. This story has influenced all subsequent mummy horror tales, especially films, and its original unhappy ending was changed by Stoker shortly before his death. That ending has most of the main characters dying, but the replacement ending is often offered in reprints as an appendix.

'The Jewel of the Seven Stars' is told with the same sense of impending horror and doom that works so well in Dracula. It has been filmed twice: the 1971 Hammer production of Blood From The Mummy's Tomb starring the Andrew Keir (aka 'Professor Quatermass') with the delectable Valerie Leon; and the 1980 film The Awakening, starring Charlton Heston and Stephanie Zimbalist (of Remington Steele). Each has its merits, but I'm presently watching my annual October screening of the Hammer version.

Blood From The Mummy's Tomb (BFTMT) originally starred Peter Cushing, probably the most legendary Hammer star (with Christopher Lee), and there were even scenes shot with him. It seems the movie suffered the mummy's 'curse' for, after the first day of shooting, Cushing learned his wife was diagnosed with emphysema, so he left the film, replaced by Keir. Then director Seth Holt dropped dead on the set five weeks into the shoot. Another director finished the final week of filming. In spite of this bit of misfortune, the movie was completed and considered a general success.

What I like about the film is Valerie Leon...and of course the spooky fun of ancient tombs and archeological horror...and Valerie Leon. Seriously, It's always nice when she's on screen. But there's plenty more for the adventure fan, especially the scene when the archeologists are seen in flashback as they enter the queen's tomb late one night and find her perfectly preserved -- except where her hand was chopped off and the wrist stump begins to ooze fresh blood! What follows is that sense of foreboding they all experience as one by one they see clues of the return of the queen.

Except for the bright lighting (it would have been a tad spookier with more dramatic lighting, honestly), BFTMT is pretty good Hammer and worth watching, for us diehards.Just like BFTMT, The Awakening has an archaeologist(Heston) opening the tomb of an ancient Egyptian queen at the exact moment his daughter is born.

Years later, the teenaged daughter displays malevolent changes in personality, and people begin to die. Heston soon comes to believe that the cruel queen's ghost possesses his daughter and intends to resurrect herself through the girl. It's been a while since I saw this film (the 1980 release, as a matter of fact), so I'm going to watch it again before I comment further. I recall it didn't do very well, but that isn't always a determining factor in whether I like a film or not.

One can also see the influence of the story in The Mummy II, wherein Rachel Weisz learns she is an Egyptian princess reincarnated. But those movies, in spite of some cool adventure elements, sacrificed the horror for annoying CGI smears and a slightly annoying bad fantasy touch. I would like to see more movies like BFTMT and The Awakening, which emphasize the mysterious aspects of the horror because this is a natural by-product of adventure. Horror adventure is simply where the trail leads to the dark side of the supernatural shenanigans which shadowy jungles and creepy lost temples promise. Hmmm...sounds like a movie in production that I'm intimately familiar with...

If Dentistry Has A Name...

2011-10-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

I spent about three hours this afternoon at the dentist, getting a cleaning and a crown on a tooth I broke.

In between torture sessions and while the sculpture set and glazed, they played Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls on the chair screen. I'm hoping for the Solomon Kane movie on my next appointment, since that still hasn't been seen in US theaters yet...

Harryhausen vs CGI

2011-10-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

So when I finally got up this morning, TCM was just starting to run The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, the second installment of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad 'trilogy'. I was in the right mood to sit and watch a film I own on DVD. I say this is one of the best adventure fantasy films of the pre-Star Wars 70s. It's also an example of why I prefer Dynarama to the way CGI is used.

Notice I said the way CGI is used. When done properly, yes CGI is an absolutely amazing innovation. But Hollywood can't resist ruining the process by saturating films with it and making it obvious when it's applied. The great thing about CGI is that, in the 'pre' days you could tell when you were about to see a process shot (except in Star Wars, of course, which is why it kicked ass)(And except in a few other films, but I'm speaking generally).

With CGI, finally the blend of effects process and real images is seamless. However, the problem is that all producers go crazy with making primary objects CGI yet few do it right, i.e. spend the money and time to do it right. That results in a computer cartoon image that, for me, looks like a boring cartoon image from a video game.

What has this resulted in?As presented these days, CGI usually does not look realistic enough to sustain the suspension of disbelief. Ironically, old school effects turn out to look more realistic, mainly because they are, at least, physical. Case in point, the works of Ray Harryhausen as in Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

One of the reasons Harryhausen films are so beloved by film fans who are aware that movies existed before 1980 is because his physical Dynarama style was perfect for the creatures his films depicted. Mythological and fantastic beasts simply look cool in the stop-motion style and their physical reality fits within the context of the scenery. You watch a Harryhausen creature and it looks like it is there. Even if the sculpture isn't the most amazing work you've ever seen, it just works. Harryhausen achieved what I call making your limitations serve your style.

Sure, the objects are rubber and plastic, but they work in the visual context. This is what CGI has, surprisingly, failed at in over 90% of the movies wherein a primary character object is CGI. The computer work itself might look really cool, but the nature of the CGI image rarely looks like it fits in the reality image surrounding it. Who knew that Harryhausen's Dynarama would turn out to do this better?

So what does that mean? How about we use CGI to touch up or enhance scenery, but take stop motion and model animation to another level? Go back to using physical miniatures for primary objects.

Lucasfilm did a fine job with this in the first three produced Star Wars films and that was thirty years ago. Imagine what could be done now with miniatures if they really wanted to. Of course, that means paying someone to build the miniatures and animate them which, for some reason, Hollywood studios must be reluctant to do. Barron Entertainment, producer of Secret of the Amazon Queen is letting me use miniatures and practical effects on the film. I am excited about that and intend to put my money where my mouth is on this.

Sure, we are using some CGI, but I won't tell you exactly where. I'll let you see the film and decide where we used it. What I promise you is that no primary object will be CGI in that film. In fact, I can tell you we will also be using classic stop-motion in at least one scene. Consider it an homage to Ray Harryhausen.

If you appreciate Dynarama and Harryhausen's films in general, check out the book that came out a few years ago, The Art of Ray Harryhausen by Harryhausen himself & Tony Dalton.

If you've never seen a Harryhausen film, shame on you. His style is perfect for the adventure and fantasy genres and I would love to see someone take up the mantle...

South America By Train

2011-10-07T00:51:00.000-07:00

I enjoy train travel, especially when seeing the world for pleasure. That's why I selected some travel videos on Netflix that feature seeing the world by rail. I started with South America.

From a series titled 'Travel The World By Train', I viewed their 1999 production. Admittedly, the video is dated. From what I am able to determine, much of the rail service presented no longer exists -- and it had already become a remnant nearly ten years before when the formerly touted South American tourist railways were shut down. That's too bad because what little experience I have with rail travel on that continent remains one of the best memories of the experience, and what I see in films or travel videos just makes me want to do a lot more. I am a travel romantic. Yes, the simple going is half the motivation for me. Seeing landscapes I've never seen is the other half. That's why I enjoy trains. You don't get the same experience in an airplane (and I don't do small craft unless I'm on a job. Just a weird superstition of mine which aviation enthusiast friends of mine find irritating...), and though I thoroughly love road trips by car in my home country, I prefer to let someone else do the driving when in other lands. Thus, my enjoyment of train travel. On the ground, you see everything; on the train, you can relax and let your mind and heart wander.

See the world by rail and you'll see that no amount of computers, iPads, or cell phones really make the world one small village. There is a LOT of land that remains uninhabited. This train travel video through South America emphasized that (again) for me. Seeing the wide plains and lonely yet beautiful skies over the Andes is a beautiful sight. The trains take you through the vast and quiet landscapes of one of the most fascinating continents on Earth. This video brought to mind a lot of memories of places I've seen and places I yearn to. The trains themselves are incredibly charming for a traveler (as opposed to a tourist). Old steam locomotives which burn wooden logs or heavy oil pull equally arcane cars across the grassy plains of Paraguay, over high deserts in Argentina, or through the scenic backdrop of Chile. The famed Patagonian Express has one locomotive, built in the United States in 1922. That was in 1999, so I'm not sure if it's still running. This is likely the one you've seen in movies, like The Big Blue (1988), with the wooden slat seats and stoves in each car to keep the passengers comfortable. Not all the trains are such nostalgic affairs, but I'd love to ride one of these living steampunk machines before they completely disappear. I've been on the railroad between Ollantaytambo and Machu Piccu. The engine is more modern and the cars more what tourists are used to. But that doesn't take away any of the fun. I like all trains, old and new. I recall the excursion from Ollantaytambo to Agua Caliente, from where we took another train to the next station to then board a bus reserved by WEX Club guide and founder David Childress. (The bus ride to the top was a white knuckle hoot). The train runs along the river and as you pull into the mountains, it just gets better.

The bus was in lieu of a 1300 foot ascension walk, which I wouldn't have minded but we had older folks in the group and several members of the group were already experiencing altitude difficulties. Fortunately for me, the thirty days prior to this particular trip I had spent on the job in Bogota, where I had my first bout with the axe in the skull that comes with altitude. A bottle of neosaldina and a month to acclimatize prepared me for Peru and Bolivia, so I was better off. Anyway, I enjoyed the rail experience enough to buy a souvenir PeruRail vest (As a photographer and filmmaker and sometime field security consultant, I find vests very useful). I plan to go on a major South American trip with my son and my nephew in 2013 and you can bet rail travel will be part of the plan. It will be their first trip to that continent, and much of what we see will be new to me as well (unless I return there on my own or on the job before then...). Whatever you've heard about rail travel good or bad, I always recommend trains as part of any travel itinerary. As I wrote nearly all of Secret of the Amazon Queen during the first four months I spent in South America (started it in the Philippines), I can see myself being inspired to write more adventures while experiencing the trains down there, whatever little remains of the experience by now. I'm looking forward to the next travel-by-train video...

Latest Review of 'Empire of the Wheel'

2011-10-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

Nick Redfern has posted his review of the book:Reviews of the Mysterious Kind

New Interview on Occult Serial Murder Book: 'Empire of the Wheel'

2011-10-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

For those interested in "Empire of the Wheel", which I wrote with Richard B Spence, go to this link:EOW on Mike Clelland ShowWe discuss the strangeness associated with our investigation into seven questionable deaths in the San Bernardino Valley, their occult synchronicities, and the Zodiac Killer connection...

'Tis The Season!

2011-10-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

My favorite time of year has begun!For me, the holiday season begins with October 1st, as I enjoy all things Halloween for the entire month. I enjoy Christmas so much more when it arrives after the proper build-up, which must commence with the spooky time of ghosties and creepy thrills. It's literally the most magical time of year for me. So, let's kick off our journey...I'll be recommending films that capture the unique blend of horror and adventure throughout the month. These are scary delights, old and new, that marry our beloved genre of exotic locales and expeditionary trappings with themes of things going bump in the night. Naturally, I'll make distinctions, because a bunch of teenagers stalked by a madman at a Club Med is NOT what I'm talking about. No, the films I'll be recommending will fit a little more firmly into the classic adventure backdrop and the horrors will be just as classic -- but none stale!The first recommendation for this Halloween adventure season is the 1932 cult favorite White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi.

I'll borrow the plot description from Wikipedia: 'On arrival in Haiti, Madeleine Short reunites with her fiancé Neil Parker, with imminent plans to be married. On the way to their lodging, the couple's coach passes Murder Legendre, an evil voodoo master, who observes them with interest. Neil and Madeleine arrive at the home of the wealthy plantation owner, Charles Beaumont. Charles' love of Madeleine prompts him to meet Murder secretly in Murder's sugar cane mill, operated entirely by zombies. Charles wants to convince Madeleine to marry him and solicits Murder's supernatural assistance. Murder states that the only way to help Charles is to transform Madeleine into a zombie with a potion.' Heh heh heh, as you can guess, from there we are treated to much eerie fun and intrigue.

I pull out my DVD of White Zombie every year (and am actually using it as a guide for Secret of the Amazon Queen production design) to marvel at the atmosphere created by the visual mood. The filmmakers were fortunate to have much available at the time as horror was a profitable and popular genre so the studios maintained wonderful sets. The jungle is lush and foreboding, the mansion somewhat anomalous yet a perfect fit, filling the role an ancient mysterious temple might fill in a straight adventure tale. I also love the black and white photography of this film, itself a reason to watch the movie. As a rule, I hate modern zombie movies, but this film features classic voodoo zombies, not boring gore-eating monsters. White Zombie is adventure-horror not just for the setting, but because it captures a similar esoteric strangeness to be found in the works of Talbot Mundy or H Rider Haggard.

So, before this month is out, whip up some popcorn and enjoy a midnight viewing of White Zombie...

Interview Today on X-Zone

2011-09-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

Go to this link to hear my interview today on X-Zone Radio:Walter Bosley Interview

Comic Book!

2011-09-24T02:06:00.000-07:00

It has been decided!LCL will release a new graphic version of Secret of the Amazon Queen. We tried this before a few years ago with another company, but I honestly wasn't crazy about the style. With the movie developing along, I decided it is time to present the novel in a visual form once again, to whet your appetites. The Secret of the Amazon Queen comic will feature the art of Yanis Mario Zambeis and the writing of E.A.Guest. It will be a six-issue presentation and follow the plot of the novel, with some revisions inspired by the screenplay. That means fans of the original story will finally see it faithfully visualized while also having some unexpected little touches to keep it fresh. We are just starting this project so I'm going to tentatively choose Thanksgiving as the release date for the first issue.More to follow...

More Festival Images

2011-09-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

I've been busy catching up on things after the Lovecraft Festival, like finishing the third chapter of the new Julius Corbin novel and setting up the plan for a new comic book I'll be announcing soon and other publishing business.Here are some photos from the festival last weekend. Three related to The Whisperer In Darkness: A miniature of the cave, then Andrew Leman (screenwriter who also portrays Charles Fort in the film) demonstrates a prop; followed by director Sean Branney's image in the prop used for his cameo, and the crowd around a vendor in between screenings...

The DVD and BluRay of Whisperer is due for release this fall, but if you can catch a screening of it in a theater, it's worth it.As soon as I know the next con or festival we are attending, I'll let you know...

Lovecraft Film Festival

2011-09-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

We are definitely going back next year.

I just spent Friday and Saturday night at the H.P.Lovecraft Film Festival & Cthulhu Con held in the Warner Grand Theater of San Pedro, California. The Warner was built in 1931 and still retains its original beautiful art deco styling, the perfect venue for this event. This was a most refreshing experience to follow the Comic Con, as it was much smaller and pretty much stays on topic. If you're a Lovecraft fan, you will enjoy the gathering of like-minded others.

The first night was spot-on with three screenings that fit the theme like a glove. There was a 1968 BBC production of M.R.James' "Whistle And I'll Come To You". Though not a Lovecraft tale, the elements are very much in our featured writer's meme, with a desolate and olde landscape, an ancient eeriness, and a curious folklorist haunted by it all. It was the execution of this production that pleased the crowd most, letting the drama unfold at its own pace. The lead actor was marvelous, too. This was followed by a film I happen to have in my personal collection: The Haunted Palace starring Vincent Price and Debra Paget. It was fun to see the Roger Corman interview in which he revealed how a film based on a Lovecraft story is attributed to Poe in the title. Seems the studio geniuses thought it would sell better if Corman was doing another Poe film. In spite of that, fans of the Charles Dexter Ward tale by Lovecraft will recognize it even before Price appears as Ward. I am a fan of Debra Paget and she delivers here, holding her own with Price and a few other familiar faces. Finally, we were treated to a rare gem in the Lovecraft universe, a screening of Berkeley Square, starring Leslie Howard in the time travel story ahead of its time which Lovecraft was obsessed with during the last years of his life. The author saw this film four times after its release in 1933 and his own novella, The Shadow Out of Time, was inspired by it.

Exceedingly rare and just about impossible to find in any home viewing format, the motion picture Academy (that's right, of Oscar fame) provided the copy at the festival. If you are a fan of all time travel stories since 1933, you'll be amazed at how this movie did it first, (except perhaps The Time Machine) especially Somewhere In Time and just about every comedy on the theme in recent years. The humor is surprisingly relevant, making the modern audience laugh at every joke. Everyone particularly enjoyed when one character tells a female character that women are "all alike in the dark". Berkeley Square is a must see, if you can find it, and was the perfect film to close the night. After the screenings, everyone wandered down to the Whale & Ale Pub for a few drinks and chat and then retired for the evening.

The second evening was a bit hit and miss. First up was Cast A Deadly Spell, a 1991 comic noir film from HBO that honestly bore little resemblance to anything Lovecraft, save for the hard-boiled detective main character being named after the writer. If you like Big Trouble In Little China, watch that instead. This film is actually in a genre I'm not terribly fond of personally, i.e. comic fantasy. This stuff rose up in the 1980s and became more prevalent after the success of Douglas Adams' works (though not as successfully). However, a lot of people like smirky cute send-ups of fantastic literature, it irritates me too much to watch it. That's why I stepped out and perused the vendor areas for the remaining 45 minutes after reaching my saturation point. Too bad because there are elements to this film that could have carried it without all the schtick that drove me out of my seat. This was followed by a Spanish production, La Sombra Prohibida (The Forbidden Shadow), a SyFy quality melodrama inspired by Lovecraft. This one was subtitled, which is fine. Its problems are in deciding what it wants to be. At times it was telenovela, then edgy horror, then fantasy. The first half literally made me doze off, though the second half indeed became Lovecraftian with a subterranean realm of ancient mystery, robed cultists and the eldritch god Cthulhu emerging from the depths. However this was quickly ho-hum again with more endings than movies should have. Still, this one was Lovecraftian, even featuring the author himself as a character in an early scene. This was followed by the short film entries, often the reason for going to any film festival. There were the usual moody, atmospheric offerings, some good and some better. There was humor and there was thespian angst. Most notably, the thespian gymnastics were presented in typical 'actor' fashion in a dragging adaptation of Curse of the Yig and the more entertaining (but curiously present) adaptation of The Raven. I was willing to accept the M R James film the first night, because it is indeed evocative of the star of the show, but I draw the line where shorts entered in competition are concerned. At a Lovecraft festival, a Poe film should not even be considered. But there it was and, much to the surprise of more than just me, guest judge director Guillermo Del Toro gives it the tying win with Strange Aeons, a moody prose short, sorta kinda Lovecraftian. Really? OK. My vote went to Shadow of the Unnamable, a truly Lovecraftian tale featuring one of his greatest characters, Randolph Carter. If you can find it, check it out. Finally, we were on to the big event...

The Whisperer in Darkness is the second film from the H.P.Lovecraft Historical Society. Based upon the story of the same title, this film was worth the wait. The group's first cinematic outing was a silent version of Call of Cthulhu, which any Lovecraft fan must have in their collection. Whisperer shows everything they learned from that effort and then some. Once again a science fiction classic shows its roots in a story that predates it by decades. This story is an earlier Invasion of the Body Snatchers told here in a most entertaining early 1940s style. The cast is recognizable from their first film but they're even more colorful and enriched, very fun to watch. Matt Foyer in the lead is very good and needs to be in more movies (take note Hollywood), and his supporting cast is up to his challenge.

The visual style of the film I adore: LIMITED CGI and mostly practical effects with miniatures, thank the gods. You will love the classic science fiction touches in execution as well as the noirish cinematography. What you will notice is how engaged you become in the action and drama which rivals any of the crap from Hollywood of the past several years. One crowd-pleasing moment I won't reveal, but it doesn't follow typical Hollywood convention and we loved it. In the end, I wanted to see it again that night. Hats off to director Sean Branney and the crew at HPLHS for delivering one of the best indie films I've seen. This film was really a great cap to a most enjoyable festival.Festival emcee and organizer, film director Aaron Vanek deserves kudos for putting on a great show. My entourage already plans to attend next year and I recommend it to all Lovecraft fans. Go to their website here.As mentioned before, I'm attending events in the coming twelve months since Comic Con to replace the disappointing San Diego event. This festival was a great start to that quest, delivering a truly satisfying experience. Look for a future report on the next...

Cthulhu Con, Fri-Sat

2011-09-16T02:06:00.001-07:00

OK, kiddies!I will be at the Lovecraft Festival in San Pedro for the next couple of nights. We will likely have some photos to share, so hopefully the hotel wi-fi is satisfactory for me to upload them. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for Sunday's full report...More to follow...

Movie and Beer

2011-09-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a joy for me.I love films about travel. I also enjoy trying new beers from around the world. Throw in my popcorn-and-crumbled-Doritos snack (served in a red-striped cardboard popcorn box) and I'm pretty much satisfied.

I selected a film I've seen before, but the beer was new. The Darjeeling Limited is one of my favorite Wes Anderson films and I think it's appropriate to the adventure theme here. Let's face it, for many people in our times the closest thing they have to adventure is travel. I'm not talking about the tourism brand of an itinerary planned down to every fifteen minutes, get the tee shirt, visit all the postcard spots and race home. Travel in my lexicon of experiences means getting yourself somewhere and just going with your personal flow once there. Nothing wrong with having an objective or even a shopping list of things to see, but when I travel I prefer to have plenty of time off the beaten path or to just kick back and soak it all in. I like to think while I'm there. This is why I enjoy travel movies, especially this one by Wes Anderson.

Essentially, you have three brothers who've agreed to meet in India on some quest undisclosed by the brother who planned it all. Turns out they are on this journey to get closer and find their estranged mother. Their father has died not long before the trip so they're still dealing with that between themselves. For me, it's what's between themselves that often has me laughing out loud. As they ride the train, we are introduced to their individual quirks and conflicts. The oldest brother plans incessantly, dictates actions and orders the food for all. The next oldest seems to have an existential problem regarding fatherhood, reflected in his fetish for their father's personal effects (which keep turning up to the ire of the others) and in his self doubt as a husband and potential father. The youngest is the romantic, looking for validation as an author of a story about down-to-earth love even as his passions lead him into a tryst certainly exemplary of his romantic less-than-down-to-earth nature. Interestingly, it is all this that actually points to their living mother as the ghost who haunts them more than their dead father. The oldest is just like her, the next oldest's self-doubts may reflect his fear of not being adequate to his wife, a la reflective of inadequacy in the eyes of his mother (which may be yet another reflection, this one of the father who was likely inadequate to his wife, their mother); and the youngest seeking to replace the absence of his mother's nurturing love with physical trysts in which he hopes to bury his feelings of inadequacy. You're asking yourself, 'And this movie is funny?' Hell yes, I laugh out loud through much of it. Such layers are adventures within themselves. Ultimately, the brothers find their mother and she sets them straight. They achieve what they set out to, and they are really brothers again, shedding the baggage of their father. Literally.

The humor in this film is dry, my favorite. The locations are where they're supposed to be. The first friggin' place I ever wanted to travel to and have yet to get to is India. I have spent time in Pakistan, but it ain't the same, folks. At least, not in my experienced-traveler-yet-idealized vision. I envy everyone who worked on this film who got to travel. It's the sort of film during which I don't keep track of the time. I just roll with it and enjoy the experience. Having seen a fair chunk of the world, I watch a movie like this and it takes my mind to places I've seen, from trains or windows or airplanes. Little quaint things please me, like Adrien Brody talking about how nice one place smells, or the girl on the train bringing sweet lime drinks. I love lime drinks. The soup served in one scene makes me think of some good Indian food I once had in Khartoum. Anyway, travel films take me to exotic locales and inspire me. New destinations and new stories come to mind and I forget whatever might have been annoying me before it started. The Darjeeling Limited is one of these films. Not classic in setting, but it is an adventure of three souls who go off to a far land alien to them and find a treasure. That's adventure.

If you've never seen this film, I recommend it with popcorn and crushed Doritos, along with a Lhasa beer. It's actually brewed in Tibet and exported, so the label says. I really enjoyed this brew. No skunky after taste, actually goes down good and smooth. I had two during the movie and am tempted to have a third, but I'll likely save them for hot afternoons.

I'm not sure if I'll make another significant posting before the Lovecraft Festival this weekend, but I will report on it afterward (maybe during), along with photos.

Lovecraft Film Festival This Weekend!

2011-09-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

I will be attending the H.P.Lovecraft Film Festival & Cthulhu Con in San Pedro this weekend.

The event is being held at the Warner Grand Theater, originally opened in 1931. Several films will be screened, including the new indie production from the H.P.Lovecraft Historical Society, The Whisperer In Darkness. I will be attending with my son, a lifelong cinema nut (thanks to me) and a recent appreciator of Lovecraft (also thanks to me); along with my nephew and his father. I'm really looking forward to this festival and will report at greater length after we have returned. On hand will be legend Roger Corman, director Guillermo Del Toro, and others. There will be short films, as well as screenings of features.Check out this trailer and if you're going, let me know so we can meet up!

LCL Magazine Returns!

2011-09-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

If anyone here remembers the e-magazine I published a few years ago, I am presently gathering together the issues to select pieces for a 'Best of Lost Continent Library Magazine' issue that will be available at Kindle and in a print-on-demand edition. If the interest is strong enough, I may start doing new issues...Here's a look at the cover for the very first issue, January 2008...

More to follow...

Revisit 'Wonder of the Worlds' Promo Vid

2011-09-11T02:03:00.000-07:00

I just watched the linked vid and I still think it holds up... Click HERE

'Amazon Queen' Samples

2011-09-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I worked with Yanis Zambeis, my storyboard artist for the film. We did several plates, two of which are displayed here...Here's a shot from early in the film...

This is a sketch of one of the main characters...

Here's Yanis in action...(I tried bringing the art image up but it was too light)

As you can see, the storyboard plates are in a spiral bound book. This will be easier for me to carry to and around the stage and locations. Of course, I'll have all the plates scanned so I can print them for a traditional board for the studio office wall during pre-production and production. Also, the data will be added at the bottom of each plate, re shot number, dialogue range, etc... Working on the storyboard has been very exciting. It's like I'm already directing the film, in a way.I spoke with our visual effects director on Friday evening. He's energized, loves the script and can't wait to get started! More to follow...

New Sesh Heri Interview!

2011-09-09T00:12:00.000-07:00

Author of the Wonder of the Worlds Trilogy, Sesh Heri, was interviewed today. You can listen here

The New Richard Senate Book Now Available!

2011-09-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

Richard Senate, author of Flight of the Hercules (LCL 2010), has a new book of fiction released today at Amazon. For only 99 cents you can enjoy the latest thrilling adventures in the age of steam!

Just click HERE and get yours now!

New 'Amazon Queen' Promo Art -- Again!

2011-09-06T01:10:00.000-07:00

We just can't stop! Here's another one featuring Miriam Rivera...

As always, more to follow...

More 'Secret of the Amazon Queen' Promo Art

2011-09-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

We are playing around with different concepts for one sheets, aka lobby posters. This one features actor Ry Bouttavong who will appear in the movie as a temple dancer in the Amazon city...

More to follow...

'Secret of the Amazon Queen' Storyboard Images, Etc

2011-09-04T02:11:00.000-07:00

Today I had another session with artist Yanis Zambeis and we moved the storyboard along further. With this afternoon's work, we brought the opening of the movie to the point where the main characters are introduced and the drama starts...

These are not necessarily in order...

As we progress, the storyboard images will take on a more simplistic style as the action increases, especially in scenes with several shots (the exciting stuff!). I decided that the first shot of each new scene will be in the current style you've seen thus far, but the following shots will be simpler. Remember, a storyboard is a tool for me and my camera operator and the editor. As long as we understand it, no one else needs to...

Hopefully we'll be progressing with production design soon and I'll be able to start posting those images. Production and costume design art are supposed to be detailed and look nice and 'arty'. As a director, I'm very involved with the look of my film, so it will be a true collaboration between my production designer and me...

I made some decisions early on regarding the visual style of the film. My philosophy is to make budget limitations serve style. That is why we're actually not using much CGI at all. Low budget CGI looks crappy, like a bad SyFy movie. Our use of this MUCH overused tool will be limited to mere enhancement of physical visuals, i.e. we'll put slight digital touches to the actual location to make the jungle thicker; we'll sprinkle some digital glitz to certain establishing shots of the Amazon city; basically only use it to make the physical better instead of using it to substitute for something physical. What this means is that some other decisions have also been made that I think you will enjoy and be impressed with when you see the final film. Believe it or not, we are actually able to afford our chosen style over CGI on our low budget...

Also, as soon as I'm finished with a documentary project for our producer and we start meeting with and signing talent, I will post images of them in costume and 'scenes'. One actress we are already moving toward a photo shoot for promo graphics fairly soon...

It has been slow getting to this point but we are moving now!

More to follow...

Classic Popeye

2011-09-02T00:40:00.000-07:00

I figured since there's a new Popeye movie slated for 2013, it would be a good time to visit this classic again...

Click here for POPEYE

Quickie Movie Review

2011-09-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

The other night I watched a western that got better as it went.

The Hunting Party (1971) starring Gene Hackman, Oliver Reed and Candice Bergen. Without giving away the details, because I think you should watch this

film, I'll just say that it's one of the more interesting versions of The Most Dangerous Game in the long cinematic history of reboots of that tale, with an interestingly prescient glimpse into a 1975 movie Candice Bergen would again star as a wealthy kidnapped woman who ends up liking her captor.

The things I liked were the cast: Simon Oakland, Mitchell Ryan, L.Q.Jones, and G.D Spradlin are the great standouts in the supporting roles. That didn't surprise me because every one of those guys are great at what they do. But in this film they're extra good, especially Jones and Ryan. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen Ryan given so much room and material in his earlier work. Kind of makes me wish he'd been given a few good leading roles (which I recall I also said about Jack Palance in my last review). Bergen is good, but naturally this is a film for Hackman villain fans. He's a real asshole in this one and spot on, as always. I think I was quite impressed with Oliver Reed. He played it with a subdued lethality touched with tough vulnerability.

The Hunting Party is typical in many regards to the 1970s point of view on westerns, i.e. the outlaws are the sympathetic characters and the establishment boys are the no-good sonsabitches, but it's atypical in that it is actually a good movie in spite of the common wrapping of its time. Reminds me of how Walter Hill can spin B material into gold. I recommend this film for those who don't need John Wayne or Clint Eastwood all the time.

Amazon Queen Storyboard Video Part 2

2011-08-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Some folks asked me how to see the storyboards talked about in the last posting. The link is not the graphic, the link is at the bottom of the posting... Check it out :)

SECRET OF THE AMAZON QUEEN Movie Storyboard!

2011-08-28T00:55:00.000-07:00

I've been busy all week! Had a meeting with the mayor of San Bernardino regarding my non-fiction book, Empire of the Wheel; had some pre-production admin on the documentary I'm directing next month; plus a lot of publishing biz. But I'm back with a posting about the Secret of the Amazon Queen movie!

The linked video is simply a roll of the opening sequence of the film on storyboards. It shows how the characters end up lost in the Amazon jungle. The music that is on the video is not what will be used in the film. Also, about half the images do not have the admin data added yet. I wanted to get this posted quickly for you all to see.

My storyboard artist is Yanis Zambeis of Rancho Mirage, California. I spent the day with him and his girlfriend, Tammy Cardona, who will be a make-up artist on the film. Once we finish the storyboard process, Yanis will pick up a camera and capture video throughout production for the 'making of' special feature that will be included in the DVD/BluRay(whatever the format is next year...).

If you don't understand what storyboards are and do, please ask. The art is not supposed to be anything spectacular. It merely serves a function...

So...Click Here!

Conan the Barbarian Movie Comments

2011-08-21T23:10:00.000-07:00

Damn.

I'm going to be nice and give this film a B minus, mainly because I am not a major Conan fan and I'm not sure how the true fans will feel about it. I'm more of a Solomon Kane guy and REH's horror and other pulp adventure stories. There are some things I liked about this Conan. However, it just doesn't quite deliver.

I like the guy playing Conan, yet I don't. He certainly looks right, but my impression of the character has always been a bit more of a harder man, mature beyond his years. This actor playing Conan isn't bad, but he could have been better to enough of a degree to have made the movie better. The love interest character isn't bad and though they push the line of the 'woman equal to her man' motif, they manage to stay just on this side of the usual annoying Hollywood depiction of said theme. There was never a doubt that Stephen Lang would be without flaw as the villain, however I'm a bit disappointed in the character Rose McGowan plays. They really should have pushed this one to the limit, with the twisted sexiness and the sadism. It could have been a role that she redefined her career with, but alas it

was not. There is an aspect to the story that requires the pure-blooded priestess (Conan's aforementioned love interest)that I think they could have done better. I won't spoil it, but the pure-blooded gal should have merely been needed for a sacrifice and what they were trying to do through her would have made the movie better if they tried to do that same thing through Rose McGowan's character. As a matter of fact, there is a scene that hints at the theme that would have made the story pop and sizzle, but they blew it. Anyway, if you see the movie, you should catch my logic...

Visually and viscerally, the movie delivers, certainly. I think REH would have approved of those elements, and also the R rating. That I give them kudos for, having the balls to depict Howard's work on the level it was intended. However, the story suffers for the overemphasis on the fighting. Conan isn't Conan without the fighting and violence, but neither is it Conan when the story gets blurry because of it. It was a nice little kick to see so many bare breasts, because Conan's origins are in pulp and boobs are every bit as much a part of that tradition as the gristle and swordplay. This is a movie for boys and men, after all, but smart women with a sense of humor and an understanding of the genre will appreciate it on some level. Nitpicky moms and peace-loving feminists will not enjoy this movie. That's one of things I like about Conan!

I would say that the great Conan movie is yet to be made and will honestly be somewhere between this new film and the Arnold version of the 80s (which also has its flaws). This Conan may be acceptable to fans, but it clearly missed the crowd-pleaser objective.

That said, if they make a sequel, I will give it a chance...

Cover Art Preview For New Richard Senate Book!

2011-08-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

Here it is, folks! The cover art for Richard Senate's second book of fiction, to be published this month at Lost Continent Library. It will be available at Amazon as a Kindle book...More to follow, once we release it...

Movie Recommendation

2011-08-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

It's not typical adventure, but it does involve an expedition of sorts and I ended up liking it a lot.

I'm talking about the 1966 western caper film, The Professionals, starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode, with Jack Palance, Claudia Cardinale and Ralph Bellamy. It's somewhere around 1913 or so and an American millionaire hires our heroes to rescue his kidnapped young Mexican wife. Naturally, the heroes don't have a better offer so they team up and take the job, each with their own talents. Off they go south of the border to rescue the wife from the revolutionary who has abducted her. What ensues is the usual course of events (with some nice not typical touches), but what results is refreshingly played well. I won't tell you exactly what happens because I hate spoiler reviews. Watch the movie yourself and you'll see how it unfolds.

First of all, I'm not one of those who follows the herd on movies. I've never particularly been a fan of The Magnificent Seven and, while I have grown to sincerely appreciate the greatness of The Searchers, it's not my favorite western, personally. I feel much the same way about The Dirty Dozen as I do the M7: an ensemble cast wherein everybody gets to express their characters in cloyingly cute or excessively stoic in their manliness poses throughout the "you're supposed to cheer everything they do" action. I'm not saying these are bad movies at all; I'm saying they don't work on me the way they seem to charm their fans. The team hero movies of the 60s and 70s were as iffy to me as buddy pictures were in the 80s and 90s, most of them produced simply to cash in on the star power and the story suffers.

But The Professionals surprised me, pleasantly. Where it could have been one typical "give me my solo" scene after another, it stops short of that to allow the movie to be the star, i.e. it doesn't sacrifice the story to the characters. Yet, the actors seem to have been just fine and did their jobs well. Lee Marvin is believable, Burt Lancaster never takes his grinning wise-ass over the line, and Woody Strode is a character with as much wood in the game as the others rather than being there as an excuse to make a social statement as was often done with black characters during that time of social transition. Robert Ryan shows what experience can do in his subdued but no less powerful role. I would like to note that here's a cast of guys over forty carrying a movie VERY WELL.

Claudia Cardinale is a delight, in her first Hollywood film, and Jack Palance is allowed to be something less than comic book menacing. It makes me wish he got to do more leading hero roles. Marie Gomez is a lot of fun as the gun-slinging gal who NEVER says no to ANYONE.

This film was shot in Nevada and Palm Springs and Hollywood and it looks great. The same cinematographer would go on to shoot Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. The action moves along and, as I said before, is never sacrificed or watered down to feed some actor's ego. It is what it is, a caper adventure against an end-of-the-era western backdrop, and it delivers a satisfying time, with an ending that left me really liking this movie.

I recommend The Professionals!

Three New Tee Shirts Posted!

2011-08-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for bearing with these posts; I don't know how else to inform you of the details and availability of these great shirts...

Tonight's additions:

Lemurian Princess Tee Shirt features our very first print ad run in World Explorers Magazine and several other print pubs starting in 2003. This is the one that set the tone for LCL when it emerged onto the adventure literature and New Pulp world. Image on a white tee shirt for $12 plus shipping (and tax for CA residents)...

I Will See You In Time Dragon Tee Shirt features the dynamic and colorful cover art for the LCL book by Walter Bosley (me). Image on light grey shirt, i.e. like 'college' shirts. Price: $13 plus shipping (and tax for CA residents)...

Don't forget to indicate size when you order: S, M, L, XL, or XXL. These are quality shirts for the lowest prices available! Show your enthusiasm for classic adventure and pulp! Get yours today!

(There are four more designs to be posted...)

New LCL Tee Shirts!

2011-08-17T05:59:00.000-07:00

Because so many people have asked, particularly at the cons, I am now offering a catalogue of brand new tee shirts featuring your favorite LCL imagery! Just go to the links here on the blog and order yours:

New LCL Logo Tee $17 + shipping (and tax for CA)
Black with small logo on front and large logo on the back

Califia Tee $19 + shipping (and tax for CA)
One of our more exciting images of the Amazon Queen, on the front of a medium brown shirt

WONDER OF THE WORLDS Tee $13 + shipping (and tax for CA)
Featuring the new cover art of the first book in LCL's exciting trilogy on white shirt

Amazon Girl Tee $16 + shipping (and tax for CA)
This one features a graphic used to promote the re-issue of E A Guest's Secret of the Amazon Queen novel, on a nice sage(pale green) shirt

These shirts are available exclusively here in the links. They are produced by Spreadshirt for the lowest price possible (I have priced these products just barely above cost) and also shipped from their location upon manufacture for an affordable shipping cost of $4.50 (inside US). Be sure to indicate your size(s) in the message box provided at PayPal -- and if they don't provide the box, send me an email with your size info! S, M, L, XL, XXL

Seven more designs will be added!

Richard Senate & The Age Of STEAM

2011-08-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Look for a new adventure fiction book from ghost hunter Richard Senate, author of LCL's Flight of the Hercules later this month. The new book is a collection of stories all set in the age of steam power dominance. Richard is a very natural writer of classic adventure so if you haven't read the first book, check it now before the new one comes out!

Flight of the Hercules is available on the links list to the right...

Secret of the Amazon Queen Storyboard Images!

2011-08-11T02:12:00.000-07:00

OK,

As promised, here are some storyboard images from pre-production on the SOTAQ feature film. I spent an afternoon with artist Yanis Zambeis yesterday and we started the long but thoroughly enjoyable process of creating the visual script for the film. For those who may not understand what a storyboard is, it is every shot of the film put down in a simple, somewhat crude, form on paper. The purpose is to be a blueprint for the visual action and photographic composition of the film. In other words, the art is not supposed to be amazing, otherwise it would take forever to do one! Some directors pay artists to do elaborate storyboards, others do the most messy stick figure storyboards you'll ever see. I'm somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, I want to share the production of SOTAQ as we go along, so enjoy these images for what they are... (They are not a complete series of shots -- I don't want to give TOO much away, LOL)

Post Coming Soon!

2011-08-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I haven't posted since Sunday due to some family business. A few years ago, an individual attacked my father, resulting in his death several months later. After a three year court ordeal, this 'person' confessed. The sentencing hearing was just Tuesday and I've been busy with stuff. BUT, I'm watching a movie tonight and will have some review comments within the next 24 hours, and maybe some other stuff...

And yesterday I started the storyboards for 'Secret of the Amazon Queen', so I'll post some of those images...

Current Reading

2011-08-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Presently, I'm working through two bedtime books: Soldiers Sahib, which I told you about before but publishing and other business got me sidetracked from for a while, and James Hilton's Lost Horizon.

Perhaps you've seen the film starring Ronald Coleman, or the misfire in the 1970s starring Peter Finch. Actually the 70s version has some good elements, like Charles Boyer playing the mysterious grand puba of Shangri-La and Peter Finch as Conway. But the original version is the better one.

Lost Horizon has a great plot for any classic adventure fan, even with the lofty idealism that is its purpose: A man seeking a better world ends up on a hijacked plane that crashes in the Himalayas and the survivors are rescued by mysterious local natives who lead them to a paradise hidden from the world.

Haggard or Burroughs could have written such a story. Of course, there aren't prehistoric beasts for Conway to battle, unless you consider the 'beasts' of inner human struggle, blah blah blah. I've just reached the point in the story where Conway is on the plane, it has been hijacked and they've taken off again, flying perilously high in the misty mountain range...

Lost Horizon hasn't been adapted to film since the 1970s version (a musical, actually) and is overdue, I think. Naturally, Hollywood would insist on 'rebooting' and updating the story to make it more 'relevant', i.e. infecting the tale with youth and angst. But it would be best told in its original setting, the early 1930s, with grownups as written by Hilton. I think most reboots should earn the producers and directors who do them a boot in the ass...

I'm enjoying the book!

Conan Returns To The Big Screen!

2011-08-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

OK, I am looking forward to this, I must admit.

It was sort of logical that Arnold did the character back in the 80s. That Conan was not entirely bad either. Honestly, I liked it when it came out and can still watch it today. However, this new version looks like the next level in doing REH some justice. Much like the Solomon Kane movie, I get the feeling the producers and director have a respect for the material. At least, the trailer leaves me with that impression...

What I like already: The texture of REH's world of Conan; Rose McGowan's freaky 'Red Sonja'-esque character; and that they cast someone not well known for Conan, as Arnold was already by the time he played the character. What I like most about this new guy is it appears he brings the lethal presence the character in the book possesses that Arnold didn't quite always deliver. Like Bond, Conan must make you believe he'd kill you in an instant if you pissed him off. Roger Moore's years turned Bond into anything but a cold-hearted assassin, that's why it was refreshing when they began return that character to his lethal roots, finally getting it right again with Daniel Craig. Thus it should be with Conan: the man should be a bad-ass, not necessarily politic or child-friendly.

The world of REH is not really for kids (though I advocate that EVERY boy should be introduced to his writings at a young age...), therefore Conan needs that lethal dark edge. By the trailer, this version seems to bring it -- however, the few times Conan speaks, there is a hint that something may be lacking. I will wait to pass judgement until after I see it. Basically, I can't wait to see it...

Enjoy the trailer: CONAN

Writing New Book!

2011-08-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

I have officially started on what will be the third Julius Corbin gothic adventure novel, titled Black Apples.

Six years ago, while in Saudi Arabia, I had started this novel but didn't get far due to other projects. Recently I've been hankering to get back to Julius Corbin, likely fueled by the pre-production development of the Secret of the Amazon Queen movie. However, making this blog active again has had something to do with it, as well. After three years of a non-fiction project, writing a time travel novel and publishing other writers' works, I'm ready to revisit my favorite creation, the lonesome hero Corbin. I think I also needed those six years for the story to cook a little more. It is the fulcrum of the saga, originally envisioned as a five book series, so when completed will take me beyond the halfway point. But Corbin fans shouldn't think that's all there is because the novels are set nine years apart, leaving plenty of room for more Corbin adventures in between the novels.

Essentially, I look at the five first novels as the framework. When they are done, you will have a beginning, middle and a definite end. Corbin will die in the last novel, set in 1908. Interestingly, the movie is set in 1909, the year after the last adventure of the books, but you're gonna have to live with that. If more than one movie based on the books is completed, they will likely be set only a year or two apart. The story in the SOTAQ film is such that a sequel will pick up moments after the first film ends. Tropic of Despair would then take place around 1910 or so, probably prior to the sinking of the Titanic.

Black Apples has Julius Corbin assigned to a protective service duty, helping a young lady deliver much needed medicine to her ailing father living in an arctic outpost.

Along for the journey is a pharmacist who sees a potential fortune in the very special remedy that is found in only one place: the ancient underworld beneath the American west. Naturally, there will be the usual expeditionary fun, eerie horrors, and pulpy thrills you've come to expect with the saga -- with one difference: This one is probably the least sexy of the books so far. (But don't worry, the book that follows this brings erotically charged adventure back to central stage...)

I'm looking forward to the writing of Black Apples. This story has Corbin in a different environment than the first two. Yes, there is the subterranean world, but it's a different brand than the first two, and a little more fleshed out. What I'm really looking forward to is having Corbin in the American west and Canadian northwest. Corbin has mostly been in tropical settings thus far, save for the short episode in Antarctica in Tropic of Despair. This one has opened with Corbin in an explorer's club with two good friends, smoking pipes and catching up...

So, I will provide updates as I write this novel. I plan to keep within the limit I set, bringing the book in at around 200 pages or less in published form. I wrote the first two books longhand because I was traveling and couldn't have my laptop with me, and I like that so I'll be writing this one by hand with a pen in a notebook. It seems fitting.

Black Apples, the new Julius Corbin adventure, is slated tentatively for release later this year...

Radio Misterioso Interview of EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL Authors

2011-08-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Go to the following link to hear last night's interview:

EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL On Radio Misterioso

But remember I am also on The Kevin Smith Show tonight at 7PM PST!

EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL: Missed Last Night? Tune In TONIGHT For Zodiac Killer Discovery

2011-08-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

For those who missed last night's show on Radio Misterioso, I will be the guest tonight, Monday Aug 1, 7-9PM PST on The Kevin Smith Show...kevinsmithshow.com

Even if you did listen in last night, each interviewer is different and Kevin will likely ask some questions that will hit on other aspects of the book. So if the San Bernardino Working Murders of 1915 interest you, log on and tune in tonight!

EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL: Lost Serial Murders & Zodiac Killer Revelation Tonight!

2011-07-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight my co-author, Rick Spence, and I discuss publicly for the first time our new book, Empire of the Wheel: Espionage, The Occult and Murder in Southern California...

A revelation about The Zodiac Killer will be announced tonight, as well, on the Radio Misterioso program at killradio.org... 8-10PM PST...

Empire of the Wheel

Adventure Musings

2011-07-30T00:21:00.000-07:00

So as I move SOTAQ closer to production, and have finished my three-year non-fiction project about the same time I finished the accompanying novel inspired and written during that time, and I've attended my last and eighth Comic Con as a mere professional attendee, my mind is meandering toward the next adventure novel. It's time, I think. Julius Corbin is calling for another expedition...

It looks like I may start traveling for pay again. That'll really put the adventure focus into high gear. I've been spending time in the travel section of the bookstores, considering which maps I'm going to need. My eye was on a really good South America map, as well as a nice waterproof map of India.

I've also been in REI and Bass Outdoor World, making a serious assessment of particular accessories and specialty items. It sincerely enthuses me just thinking about travel again. I wrote both Corbin novels entirely out of the US, so if I start consulting again, you can look for that third Corbin book by Christmas.

However...it does take place mostly in North America and the Arctic...I've decided I want a little getaway to Big Bear Lake in August, so I may just pick up where I left off in Saudi Arabia a few years back, with Chapter Two of Black Apples...

Barnes & Noble has a 30% discount on a copy of one of my favorite films of that prolific year in cinema, 1939: Only Angels Have Wings.

This one has Cary Grant as a postal pilot in the Andes. I've mentioned it here before, I believe. I place this film in that category of light adventure dramas, a favorite of mine which classic Hollywood did so well. Great trappings and atmosphere, the right attitude, and the right kind of broad for when there's gotta be a dame in the story (No friggin' Willie from Temple of Doom - Ugh, she ruined that picture!)...

Recently I watched March Or Die,

a mid-70s attempt at an homage to a Marlene Dietrich/Gary Cooper film titled Morocco (1930). It may have had a little touch of Lost Patrol, but all the Foreign Legion flicks do.

Anyway, after hearing so much bad about this film, I had to see it because I'm a Gene Hackman fan. I decided that March Or Die is not such a bad film. Again, adventure drama, trappings and atmosphere, and a broad, but I liked it enough. Not everything adventure needs to be wall-to-wall bullwhips and bullets...

Still waiting for the latest on the Lost City of Z movie. I'll have to do some browsing. I did see some months back that David Fincher was still doing 20K Leagues, maybe in 3D. Not sure what the latest is on that...

If you haven't seen the 40's serial of The Phantom, I recommend it.

Not as cheesy bad as many. And I'm finally working my way through my Terry and the Pirates serial set, and it's not drudgery. I'm liking it a lot, actually. Remember back in 1980 when someone was seriously considering T&theP? It was in a movie mag that summer with a really cool tableau painting and logo. I did an article on T&theP including this possible movie in my LCL Mag. I was thinking while watching the serial how cool it would still be if they did a movie trilogy. Since Lucas has given Indy the slow death, we've all been cheated out of great high adventure so he could give us the slow death with the ruination of Star Wars. T&theP would be a great idea right now, especially since Tintin looks pretty cool...

When are we gonna see the first great steampunk movie of this century? What would it be? Any ideas?

Not sure what I'll watch tonight before hitting the hay, but it'll be an adventure film...

'Secret of the Amazon Queen' Update

2011-07-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

I will be meeting with my storyboard artist within a few days to get started on the visual creation of the script. Yanis Zambeis is a young artist I have known for a few years and one of the most gracious human beings I've ever met. He's a good cook, too!

Yanis and I will have some storyboard imagery to post here for your enjoyment. I know I'm excited to be moving to this stage. I have also been talking with a photographer, who recently worked with some talent I manage, about a promotional shoot with one of the stars of the movie, so look for future news about when those images will be incorporated into SOTAQ marketing.

My casting director and I are still considering various actors for the lead roles of Julius Corbin, Califia and Claude Toussaint. I'm pretty clear on my vision for the queen, so there are very few on that list: My first choice, a more well known second choice, or an unknown whose got what it takes. I'll name her when I cast her. My first choice for Claude has always been Tim Curry, but we'll have to see about that. There have been some other very interesting names discussed for that role. The longer list has been who we've considered for Julius Corbin. He has an age range that's flexible. In the book, Julius is 39, but for the film he could be ten years older, or five years younger. However, I'm adamant that he be no younger than 35 (much to my casting director's LA/Hollywood frustration, LOL NYAH HA HA!!)

I will be kicking off the official promotional campaign at the SOTAQ website as well, and I'll post that link when it's ready...

For now, if you've never read the book, it's in the links to the right in a double volume including the second book, Tropic of Despair

...

'Empire of the Wheel' Authors On Radio Misterioso This Sunday, July 31

2011-07-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

Rick and I will be interviewed by Greg Bishop this Sunday night, 8-10PM PST at killradio.org on the Radio Misterioso program. Remember, faithful listeners and newbies, if it gets started a few minutes late, it WILL be on!

Take a look at the press release that has gone out to several newspapers around the US, as well as a few TV stations:

EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL:
Espionage, The Occult & Murder in Southern California

Walter Bosley & Richard B Spence

Corvos Books has released the new non-fiction book by Walter Bosley (I Will See You In Time, LCL 2011) and Richard B Spence (Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence & The Occult, Feral House 2008) which reveals what may have been occult serial murder in San Bernardino, California almost a century ago. Unexpected to the authors was a revelation about The Zodiac Killer that emerged from their research into the questionable deaths of seven people (three of them children) in late 1915 in the San Bernardino Valley. Empire of the Wheel explores the questions that arise from the only available record of the deaths and proposes a theory that the victims were human sacrifices at the hands of an occult driven criminally insane madman or group. The possibilities are just as esoteric as the analysis, which the authors use to explain the motive of a psychopathic killer or killers moving amid WWI espionage activity in the area, along with Aleister Crowley and Harry Houdini. Sure to capture public interest is the material on The Zodiac Killer which presents what the authors think is the factor that ties all The Zodiac’s victims together, thus providing one of the biggest contributions to Zodiac Killer investigations in several years.

WALTER BOSLEY is a former counterintelligence specialist with the FBI, served as a Special Agent AFOSI for over five years after earning his USAF commission, traveled the world as a counter-terrorism consultant from 2000 to 2005 and is now a licensed private investigator. Bosley resides in the Inland Empire.

RICHARD B SPENCE, PhD is a Professor of History at the University of Idaho and has appeared as a guest on the History Channel, Coast to Coast, and other programs in the US and abroad.

Empire of the Wheel is available at Amazon.com

End Of An Era

2011-07-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Well, Borders is soon to be no more as we have known it. Much as the bookstore industry in general.

It was not quite twenty years ago when I visited my first super-bookstore. A B&N in upstate New York on my way back from a Vermont mini-vacation in 1992. Back then, B.Dalton and Waldenbooks were the most proliferated book retailers in the areas of the country where I lived before moving to Long Island. You could often count on both those stores being in any shopping mall. They were essentially the same place: they sold the same books, were divided in pretty much identical categories, only the signs were different. Waldenbooks was dressed up a tad more with paned glass windows on the facade and oak shelves. B.Dalton was perhaps more willing to offer discounts and specials. It really came down to which nuance of retail atmosphere you preferred and I recall preferring B.Dalton because their selection was slightly larger--but not quite everything that was available. That is where the superstores came into the picture.

Bookstores used to be places where you'd peruse titles and then purchase your selection, to dive into at the food court over a beverage or hurry home to read on the couch. You never saw people sitting on the floor. Coffee? Huh? There was only one place I ever knew that offered such things in a bookstore. The Upstart Crow in Seaport Village in San Diego. I loved the place. Went there a lot during my years at SDSU. But I thought of the Crow as a specialty place, not a norm. But that changed in '92 when I walked into a B&N for the first time. Being a bibliophile, I thought it was the most amazing wonderful thing that there could be a bookstore so big -- and with chairs! COMFY CHAIRS WITH HIGH BACKS! There were so many books and so many categories! Sure, there were Crown Books stores, but their inventory was discount and usually odds and ends. This B&N superstore had new and current releases! Still, there wasn't a store like this near where I lived, so again I considered it a freak of nature, another novelty in a place associated with vacation, not the real world. The most appealing aspect was the diversity of special interest categories of books that neither B Dalton nor Waldenbooks carried.

Then I returned to California and discovered Borders and found myself there every time I wanted to shop for books. For me, it was a book store designed with a reader's sense. When I was assigned to Wright-Patterson AFB (I was on active duty at the time), I found my personal favorite Borders ever in Dayton, Ohio. I spent many evenings and weekend afternoons there. When my son would visit in the summer time, we'd go to the Borders there just about every day, after a movie or miniature golf. When I planned my terminal leave trip to Europe, it was mostly in the Borders cafe. I first started to enjoy 'world music' at that same Borders. Some of my best memories are associated with that store. My Borders in Dayton was a hangout where I could find what I liked to read.

Of course, things change. The economy and technology have everything to do with the demise of Borders and the certain drastic change coming to B&N. Personally, I have always found B&N less personable than my experience with Borders. Maybe it's just me, but I always found Borders employees to seem more like real book lovers, whereas B&N seems like a place that hires anyone who wants the job. I could be wrong in general, but my experience has been that. Anyway, technology was inevitably going to change how we read. People love gadgets and the convenience of them. The economy's downturn forced the issue: It is simply smarter for publishers to market a product that does not require very much money up front to produce, does not require much space to store, and isn't wasted if it doesn't sell every copy. As a publisher, I love e-books. So does the public, mainly because the market has begun to force prices way down. Unfortunately for the bookstores, the traditional model, people began using bookstores like libraries.

A store cannot stay in business if people use the products in the store without buying them. It's very simple. Also, when there is an alternative that is more convenient, less expensive, and technologically fun and hip, the traditional model is doomed. As Borders and B&N did to the independents and chains before them, the digital marketplace has done to them. Amazon was the first very clear sign of what was to come. My personal vision of the bookstore of the future is this -- and I believe we will see this within five years (or less): The remaining book superstores will exist but in an altered form. Customers will have access to about a third of what these stores offer now. There will be a cafe, cashiers, nick-nack and gift area, and maybe magazines. However, there will be no massive floor of shelves with physical books on hand. Instead, there will be numerous computer stations. The only actual books in the store will be the single samples of bestselling or popular titles. Customers will instead peruse the online catalogue and select their purchases there. The remaining space of the store will be the production area, filled with Esso machines or the like, and your book will be printed while you wait (if you want it printed, and I believe people will still want printed books). You can enjoy a tea or coffee while you wait. This is the bookstore on the close horizon. Prices will be lower, no teenagers will be sitting on the floor in the aisles, the bookstore will be relevant again.

What we must point out is the irony of it all. The superstore model that wiped out the model before it actually included its own destruction in its very design: the library atmosphere encouraged people not to buy product.

As much as I loved my favorite Borders stores, and have shopped at B&N, as a publisher I have embraced the digital model of selling books. The digital world has allowed me, a small press guy, to compete with the big guys. Believe me, getting my product onto the shelves in the superstores cost me more in schmoozing sales reps and ineffective promotional costs than it did to produce the physical book. And forget the small stores, for I have never encountered a more sour and unpleasant lot of human beings in the retail world than owners/managers of indie or used bookstores. Not all, but unfortunately enough that it is a fair characterization, with a few exceptions (like Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego who are always friendly, and the Coliseum Bookstore in Manhattan, to name a few). If I am able to market product for little to zero cost, I can drop my prices and do not need to be in any store. This is the new model, and the new era to come.

In the end, it doesn't change the content.

So, farewell Borders. You will be missed.

(I hope this wasn't too rambling, I had to write it in two sessions several hours apart...)

Comic Con In The Rear View

2011-07-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Not much to report. As you know, I wasn't too thrilled this year.

I did not go Saturday, as I was returning home to pick up some of my entourage. However my correspondents who stayed informed we didn't miss much. I was back ion the scene that night and returned the next day. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... Naturally, I did some business. That's really what usefulness remains with this event for me.

So...On to the next event:

The H.P.Lovecraft Film Festival in San Pedro in September

More to follow...

Comic Con Brief

2011-07-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

OK,

We went to see Captain America today and I really like it. Any fan of classic or pulp hero literature and comics should like this movie a lot. I place it in a personal category of favorites that has consisted of The Rocketeer, The Shadow and The Phantom, three movies I love in spite of nitpicky critics. It's a cool flick. 'Dum Dum' and other Howling Commandos are in the mix and you gotta stay after the credits to get a glimpse or two of the new Avengers movie coming next year.

I gotta get up early to return to the Con, so this report is short. The Con itself is sort of weak this year, in spite of Spielberg's presence pitching Tintin. Of course, I didn't battle the crowd simply to get in and watch Spielberg on a screen hanging from the roof simply to be in the same ENORMOUS room with him. Been there, done that. Doubt I'll even sit through Kevin Smith this year. But a guy I was in film class with in junior college thirty years ago has a booth this year. He's a voice actor, Dino Andrade. We'll be getting together with a couple other classmates to catch up after the Con. Probably the MOST important thing was collecting contact data on four VERY lovely actresses interested in talking with my casting director for Secret of the Amazon Queen...More on that later.

Two more days left. If anything worthy happens, I'll share it here...

EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL Now Available!

2011-07-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

Read about occult serial murder and a revelation about The Zodiac Killer case...

Now available at Amazon.com

Comic Con 2011

2011-07-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

My group and I are in Del Mar tonight and will be heading into San Diego in the morning for the first day of our last Comic Con for a while. Over the next few days I'll be posting photos from the event and some of the fun we'll be having, as well as reporting on anything that might interest classic and pulp adventure fans.

EMPIRE OF THE WHEEL: Espionage, The Occult and Murder in Southern California

2011-07-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with classic adventure, but the book I discuss in the interview link posted yesterday should be available at Amazon by or before the weekend. It is available only as a Kindle book, for $6.99. For those who may not know, you can download the Kindle program for free to use on the device of your choice, you don't need to buy a Kindle device to read Kindle books...

If you're interested in Aleister Crowley, Harry Houdini and The Zodiac Killer, you will want to read this book...

Unraveling the Secrets W/ Walter Bosley [07/17/2011]

2011-07-19T01:17:00.000-07:00

Unraveling the Secrets W/ Walter Bosley [07/17/2011]

The link takes you to my guest appearance over the weekend on 'Unraveling the Secrets', talking a little about my upcoming non-fiction book, 'Empire of the Wheel'. I wrote this with Richard B Spence. It's not exactly on the topic of classic adventure, but you can hear me talk about something, in this case the possibility of ritual occult serial murder I believe I have discovered...

John Carter of Mars

2011-07-16T00:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time coming...

JOHN CARTER OF MARS Trailer!

New Cover Art for Sesh Heri's 'Wonder' Trilogy

2011-07-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a glimpse at the new cover art for the Wonder of the Worlds trilogy. I brought them into a more cohesive look...

Good Book

2011-07-14T17:58:00.001-07:00

If you haven't read it yet, check out I Will See You In Time...

New 'Tintin' Trailer!

2011-07-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share this link here...I'm really looking forward to this!

Tintin Trailer

Sesh Heri Working On New Novel!

2011-07-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

The author of the Wonder of the Worlds trilogy, which you can purchase here at the links, is writing a new novel!

Sesh Heri has crafted a great new screenplay which he's adapting to a novel this summer. We will be announcing the title and tell you a little more on what it's about as soon as he's ready for us to make that announcement. I can tell you it's a really cool story, not in the Wonder saga but just as thrilling and intriguing. This new work will appeal to steampunk fans as well as historical fiction readers. Heri will likely finish the novel next month and then we'll take a few weeks in the editing process. Once that's done, it will be released to the public exclusively through Lost Continent Library via Amazon Kindle.

I am very excited about this new book! Heri recently finished a show biz bio that is a really great read. Look for that release to be announced soon, as well. Heri is anxious to get some new fiction out there as readers all over the world are responding enthusiastically to the Wonder of the Worlds trilogy. Still, LCL is a small press publisher and we need to get the word out there to more readers, so if you've read any or all of the Wonder books, tell your friends!

As soon as the cover art for the new novel is finalized, I will release that with a bigger announcement telling more about the book. The title will be released with a simple graphic very soon!

Secret of the Amazon Queen Graphics

2011-07-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

For those looking forward to the first feature film from Lost Continent Library, here are some of the graphics created to promote the book and then the movie.

The first model LCL hired to promote the book in its first release in 2004 was Miriam Rivera, then a big reality TV star in European and Australian markets.

It seemed SOTAQ was movie material from the start for Miriam's agent in London loved the book and we almost saw it optioned by one of the BBC movie divisions. But alas, it was one of two scripts put before video director and fashion photographer David LaChappelle and he chose the other one. As it turns out, I'm glad he passed because I am the director of the film now...

In 2008, we decided to ramp up our effort to produce the film ourselves with independent investors. Here is a graphic created for the LCL web site and ephemera such as coffee mugs, tee shirts, etc...

Of course, most of you have probably seen the one sheet, first created in 2009 when we initiated our second serious attempt to land a producer. This was the image, along with the pitch, that captured the first production company we landed and their distributor in 2010...

It was early 2010 that I decided to freshen up promotion of the book with a new face of the Amazons and that's when I found model Rryan Bouttavong who appears here (along with our first and only male model) and on the new cover of the novel below...

If you haven't read Secret of the Amazon Queen, or the follow up 'sequel' Tropic of Despair, there is a link here to the right of the page where you can get both these books in single volume Kindle format edition for only $1.99. You can also get the printed edition at the LCL Adventure Shop link for a reasonable price...

As more production art is developed, I will continue to post it here...

Upcoming Movie Report

2011-07-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

Three upcoming movies rate some mention here.

First is John Carter of Mars, the long-awaited adaptation of the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs saga.

This one has been with more than one director and studio, but finally Disney committed and the movie is slated for release on March 9, 2012. This could not be better as it's my mom's 78th birthday and I cannot think of a better present! I think that's very thoughtful of Disney to give me the perfect gift. I know my mom will love sitting in the theater with her bucket of popcorn, a large root beer and a couple of hours of great fantasy adventure in space. What joy!

James Purefoy of Solomon Kane -- the hit movie to which the morons in Hollywood will not give a US distribution contract -- stars as an airship captain. For those not familiar with John Carter, get the books!

Then there is 47 Ronin, another fantasy adventure.

In this one, Keanu Reeves teams up with 46 other samurai on the revenge trail after being betrayed by their master. based on the true story, this telling has the samurai facing many challenges in a world of giants and witches. I imagine there will be a lot of CGI gaming imagery for two hours. Oh yeah, it's 3D.

The third film I want to mention is Journey 2:The Mysterious Island the sequel to 2008's Journey to the Center of the Earth. In this one, the kid et al go in search of his grandfather lost on an expedition. Dwayne Johnson and Michael Caine are in this one. Contemporary adventure usually bores me, but I didn't hate the first one, so we'll see...

I'm looking most forward to John Carter of Mars, for obvious reasons. I thank the gods that it wasn't also 'updated' into some annoying contemporary mess featuring a damned kid. Hopefully they've done Burroughs justice...

More to follow...

Pauline

2011-07-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

In the early days of cinema, adventure was mostly represented in the serials. The first hit among these was The Perils of Pauline from Pathe Studios in 1914. Filmed when the industry was still in New Jersey, these weekly episodes starred Pearl White who did her own stunts until injuries forced her to start using doubles later in her career.

A dance hall singer in Cuba and around South America, White's movie career began when her voice started to give out and she made several serials, the Pauline series being the most famous. Though her well-known character is the model in many people's minds for the 'damsel in distress', Pauline is actually not so helpless and is more resourceful than assumed. You might consider her a model for the great adventure heroines to come like Marion Ravenwood and the like.

Interestingly, not a single episode of Pauline ever used a cliffhanger device, instead showing the resolution to her peril by the end of each installment. The plot of the series was that Pauline's wealthy guardian left her inheritance in the care of his secretary until she marries. Pauline isn't in a hurry to marry as her dream to become an author takes priority, thus she goes on adventures to prepare herself. The secretary, hoping to ultimately keep the money for himself, conspires to do away with Pauline in the course of her exploits.

Among those adventures, she encounters pirates and Indians and finds herself on a Navy target boat. In other episodes, Pauline encounters time bombs, being in peril on a train trestle, and a hot air balloon stunt over the Hudson River drew actress White into a storm and she was injured when it came down. There were twenty episodes in all of this classic serial and it inspired a 1947 movie about Pearl White starring Betty Hutton, from which much impression of the original series comes.

If you're a fan of silent era cinema, find a copy of this serial and give it a viewing. Though The Perils of Pauline is not exactly typical of the classic adventure to follow, it certainly was among the early examples of what would come to make the adventure genre so enjoyable.

Latitude 33:Key to the Kingdom

2011-07-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

If anyone has attempted to purchase the non-fiction book Latitude 33:Key to the Kingdom, my book about the speculative esoteric engineering of Disneyland, I just discovered the link was not working. I don't know when this happened, but it was an error on Amazon's part. I have corrected it and the book is back up and available. And it's only 99 cents!

The links to this book and several others are here on this page; just scroll down a little and look on the right...

Comic Con in 19 Days!

2011-07-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

So, even though I have my criticisms of this event lately, we are going, as I said. This will likely be our last time as a group. For the remainder of this year and starting next year, the LCL entourage will represent at steampunk events, horror, science fiction and other movie and pop culture conventions where adventure is also to be found. However, I will attend Comic Con in the future on a limited basis as business dictates.

I like to give a little projection each year, in the event LCL readers and adventure fans would like to meet up. The first step is to send me an email to the address associated here. That way we can arrange to meet either in the convention center or at any of the restaurants and drinking establishments we frequent. The LCL gang always meets one night at Hooters downtown, near Horton Plaza and the Gaslamp. We also now do a dinner or two at The Tilted Kilt, down around the corner from the outfield of Petco Park. Last year, there was a Green Hornet party in the place adjacent to the TK, so it's near the Con. And we do a night of beer and live music and general rowdy behavior at Dick's Last Resort, usually Saturday. As always, friends of LCL are welcome to hang with us in the convention center. Walking around the exhibit hall is always a good time, and seeing previews in Hall H is a great break from being on our feet. Whatever your choice, we're available.

This year, we'll be staying at a friend's home just minutes from downtown. The trolley makes it easy to get around and avoid dealing with parking downtown, and it's cheaper than the fees in garages -- which actually are not that bad, if you must bring a car.

As far as my business while there, this year I am focusing on steampunk community awareness of the Wonder of the Worlds trilogy by Sesh Heri and the works of Richard Senate. Also, I'll be discussing the possibility of graphic rights with various publishers to market a comic series of these books and others. I will also record some video while there which I'll share here after we return.

More to follow...

Update

2011-07-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

I've been busy the last few days with publishing business and film production activity. Shot a short film today!

I'll be back later tonight for an adventure posting...

Pleasant Little Surprise

2011-06-27T16:36:00.000-07:00

Leave it to TCM to do it again!

This morning I sit down with my tea, turn the TV on and there was a film set in 19th Century NWFP during the British Colonial Era. You may recall that my bedside book is now Soldier Sahibs which is about that very subject, specifically the legendary soldiers like John Nicholson and the like. Imagine my good fortune to discover it was yet another of those obscure adventure-tinged films I had never heard of: Zarak (1956) starring Vicor Mature, Michael Wilding, a most tasty Anita Ekberg, and a young up-and-comer named Patrick McGoohan.

Zarak is set in the NWFP of the 19th Century and tells the story of a chief's son caught with one of dad's sexier wives (Ekberg). Dad isn't too happy and has Zarak beaten and, after a holy man takes pity and saves his life, banished. Zarak gathers loyal brigands and becomes a successful bandit chief with a good soul, of course. He then discovers that dad's hot ex-wife Salma (Ekberg) was also saved from death by a more reasonable associate of the rash and tyrannical dad. Zarak and Salma resume their affair freely. Well, it isn't long before Zarak's antics draw the attention of the nearest Brit field commander, Wilding's version of John Nicholson (who also inspired Kipling's hero 'Red Beard' in Kim), who intends to put an end to Zarak's shenanigans, making the frontier safe for civilized barbarians. I will leave the rest for you to seek out and view, but rest assured there is much sword clashing, rifle and mortar fire, and some lancing between manly posturing and romantic clutches.

Of interesting note is that the film was shot on location -- but in Morocco. Having spent some time in Central Asia and the former NWFP soldier sahib haunts, I was impressed with their convincing use of the terrain to depict the setting of the story. Also, one of the producers was Albert Broccoli, legendary for the Bond series and the director was Bond director Trence Young himself. Having missed some of the credits, I later discovered the writer to be Richard Maibaum, who adapted Dr.No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger to the big screen. For this film, Maibaum adapted a book by A.J.Bevan which tells the true story of the real Zarak Khan, a 20th Century figure who fought for the British during WW2 and was executed by the Japanese in Burma.

I liked this movie. Good fun, classic trappings. I'd like to have it in my collection. Check it out!

Saturday Night's Movie

2011-06-26T01:46:00.000-07:00

OK, for me, a movie doesn't have to have a classic adventure plot, if it has the adventure elements and trappings. Case in point: Run For The Sun (1956) starring Richard Widmark, Jane Greer and Trevor Howard.

A loose remake (there were two) of the classic The Most Dangerous Game, this film has Widmark as a somewhat reclusive writer and Greer as a reporter trying to get a story out of him. Their plane crashes in the Mexican jungle where they are taken in by Trevor Howard and his German buddies. And guess what? Yeah, Widmark thinks he recognizes Howard's voice and other clues mount up to reveal what the viewer suspects the minute a gun parts box with 'Mauser' clearly painted on it shows up (as if the snarling Dobermans aren't enough). Trev and the boys are runaway war fugitives, Howard having been a male 'Tokyo Rose' during the hostilities. From there, cat and mouse ensues as Dick and Jane try to escape through the jungle then turn back to steal Howard and company's plane tucked under the trees. I'll let you find out what happens.

There is something I love when TCM does it: runs film I've never even heard of, much less haven't seen. There's something I love about old films: even if you can guess what the basic plot points are gonna be, they're still enjoyable to watch. I enjoyed this film. The set pieces were the biggest ever built by the Mexican Estudios Churubusco and the location was the ruins of an old sugar plantation built a few centuries back by Hernan Cortes, southeast of Cuernavaca (been there, done it, got the shirt). Now that's pretty damned cool for adventure history buffs. The plantation ruins were subsequently refurbished and turned into a hotel. Filmed in the jungle, using the ruins, and throwing in a couple of airplanes and some vicious wild pigs, a big cat and some parrots, (all in technicolor) this flick is worth seeing at least once. The best part is that I was just flipping through the channels and found it.

Movie buffs may recall that Widmark and Greer appeared together in another movie that includes two lovers in and among Mexican jungles and ruins: Against All Odds (1983) with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward, which was itself a remake, this one of Out of the Past, starring Greer herself in the Rachel Ward role. Personally I enjoy such trivia.

If you're like me and you've seen enough classic adventure movies that you truly enjoy more obscure older films with simply the elements and trappings of adventure, then check out this film, Run For The Sun...

Beer Review

2011-06-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd continue some of the features of LCL Magazine on this blog and the 'Beer n Grog' review was always one of my favorites. This is where I would try a beer or some other booze and share my opinion along with a few memories not directly related to the product being featured. generally the criteria for making it into an LCL review is even the slightest association to an adventure theme, such as the label merely depicting some trapping of classic adventure.

Today's selection is Hangar 24 Columbus IPA. Since this brewery is located in a building across from the small Redlands Airport here near the orange groves that remain to remind us of Old California, their motif is the days of biplanes and barnstorming.

I chose to try a chilled 22oz bottle of Columbus IPA, served in an equally chilled glass mug, accompanied with a sandwich of sliced chicken breast and cheese on Ezekiel bread with mayonnaise. After the sandwich ran out, there was last night's popcorn and some taco flavored Doritos. My recliner parked in front of the bedroom TV, where I watch movies in the wee hours, was the perfect lunch spot to enjoy this beer during Khartoum (1966) starring Charlton Heston as Gordon. Since I've been to this city at the convergence of the Blue and White Niles more than once, it was appropriate viewing.

I forget how much Kiplingesque Gunga Din-ish soldiering there is in this movie of mostly weak attempt at presenting Gordon as a Lawrence of Arabia type figure. That is to say, not nearly enough but at least it's there. I've always felt there should have been more of Kitchener (who was a major in 1883, the year this telling depicts). One of my favorite British actors of all appears as Woolsley, an excellent choice, and the film could have used more of him, as well. That's not to say it's a bad film, because it's not. It just doesn't quite deliver what it intended, sort of like the Columbus IPA I was drinking with it.

Having spent some time in Khartoum, I enjoy watching this film because it reminds me of seeing the actual locations that were used, such as Gordon's villa and his boat (Well, the locals like to say it's Gordon's boat but whether they used his actual boat or not it is the actual boat used in the film...again, from what I'm told and could tell by sight). You know those scenes in movies when government officials, usually military and security types, gather for local traditional cuisine
and bureaucratic schmoozing? Such were the circumstances I first saw 'Gordon's boat' early in my first stay in the city. Anyway, if you care to look, you can still find remnants of Gordon's Khartoum including his ditch. Believe me, if you're ever there, you would care to look as there's little else to do besides whatever reason brings you to Khartoum in the first place.

As I sipped this bitter brew, I realized Hangar 24's Columbus IPA is best consumed with food, preferably something salty and spicy and robust. The food really calmed down the assault on the taste buds. My mistake was probably kicking back in a reclining chair drinking an ale, for dozing off soon followed. That's OK, it's Friday.

Once Khartoum ended, I raced through the commentary on Mario Bava's Italian cut of the anthology film Black Sabbath, enjoying the wonderfully frightful segment 'A Drop of Water' and the 1960s pulp lesbian overtones of 'The Telephone' so delightfully played between French and Italian actresses. I recall my dad dragging the family to see this film at a drive-in during my childhood and I loved every minute of it.

A good beer, like any decent alcoholic beverage, is best enjoyed when it reminds one of memorable adventures. As I thought of my time in Sudan, I remembered the villa compound where we resided, literally a stone's throw from the Nile. We had a nice and well tended pool I never swam in, for some reason. Haboubs, or sandstorms, would blow in every ten days or so and could be pretty dramatic the first time you experience one. We had local African girls who did housecleaning (and loved the job because we paid well). I was told they worked topless up until right before my first trip and only stopped the practice because some anal retentive dickhead in our group complained that it was inappropriate. Seriously, the Africans laughed at us for this guy's complaints and our bosses' acquiescence to his hang-ups. I wish uptight puritanical Americans would just stay home, inside their houses, and never go out. There we are working on a potentially dangerous job in a dangerous world and we have a guy who can't handle tits twice a week. Jesus H. Christ, did this guy's mother have any sons?

It probably sounds crazy but one of my pleasures when in places like Khartoum or the Middle East is to go out alone for a few hours. We generally have to pair up so often that you spend an entire month with no solitary time. Sometimes I'd get into the Landcruiser and drive to Omdurman to get away from all things modern and just smoke my pipe and think and dream. I'd have a pistol on me, so I wasn't completely naked. It's simply that I can take only so much of hearing about sports and talking about 401Ks or whatever else a lot of men think is interesting to discuss when they think they should talk. Me, I like talking about history, especially the history of where I'm at when I'm traveling. Not everyone is into that, so...off in the vehicle to the wilderness to smoke a pipe.

If you haven't had any Hangar 24 products, I recommend them. Once in a while I go to the brewery with my friend and his dad, who has a plane at the airport. We get the cold fresh stuff. Their Columbus IPA should be very cold and is enjoyed best with food.

Where I Think Adventure Needs To Go

2011-06-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

In the interest of keeping our favorite genre alive, I often wonder what I can do as a publisher and writer to contribute to its longevity.

I'm talking classic adventure, the whole pith helmets and lost jungles and elegance and heroism side-by-side-in-the-field thing. Naturally, those attracted to classic adventure are always going to appreciate the trappings of the genre, but how do we keep it fresh and how do we attract future generations of writers and fans and publishers?

One thing we can count on is that nostalgia will always draw a fair amount of readers and writers. But I think what appeals to me as a writer and a publisher is that classic adventure is as much an era as it is an idea, and classic adventure's particular eras force challenges on the characters that modern adventure does not. Frankly, aside from how hot she looks, the Lara Croft thing is a bore, to me. Any twenty-something with an endless supply of money and hours of gym time to become a master acrobat can do what modern adventure heroes do. With all that money and a commando team at their disposal, the threats have to be ridiculous to the point that even serial heroes of old would shake their heads. It gets pretty old when 'the world is at stake' every time. Even the Bond series has come to terms with that and occasionally offers the smaller, more personal threat. This is why I say classic adventure is the best adventure because of the nostalgia for the past -- a past without advanced technology as we know it, thus more dangerous for the hero and more thrilling for the reader or movie-goer.

Why do I appreciate Steampunk? It's the perfect antidote to classic adventure fading away. First, it is nostalgic in spades. All the trappings we classic and pulp adventure fans love have equally enchanted Steampunkers. My favorite group of fans to see at Comic Con every year are the ever-growing number of Steampunkers in the best costumes of any (and there are always some really good superheroes and a handful of various genre movie character players to compete with). Steampunkers love the same old adventure movies us greybeards have loved since childhood. Second, where Steampunk has taken the 'rugged' Victorian & Industrial Age technology is simply very cool. Just as modern adventure drones thought 'olde school' was laid to rest by the updating of everything, Steampunk has been proving them wrong for years. Disney's iconic version of the Nautilus remains relevant! (You can have that goddamned ugly behemoth from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...)In Steampunk, your characters use Tesla electric guns and global-reach world-grid communications and airships employ anti-gravity propulsion, and everyone still dresses so refined. It really is classic adventure on steroids and just so cool. Finally, what makes Steampunk so important to the survival of classic adventure is that it not only attracts the younger generations but it is one of the few places in pop culture where young, old and in between can truly come together and speak the same language. If you still haven't embraced Steampunk yet, catch up!

But Steampunk isn't the only thing that will save classic adventure, the other is the New Pulp movement. I'm happy to have been a part of this for a few years now. In 2003, I set out to write what I described (to the interested) as 'pulpier pulp' with my novel Secret of the Amazon Queen, written under my pseudonym 'E.A.Guest'. My intention was to write what I did, a classic adventure tale for mature readers. I never cater to twelve-year-olds and I'm pretty up front about that (though no one should fool themselves, the kids will and do read such colorful stuff...and that is a strategy in itself to keep the genre alive, heh heh heh...). By the time I did my magazine, Lost Continent Library, I was dedicated to the idea of a 'new pulp' and the magazine tried to serve that aim, to some extent. Of course, though folks close to me won't say, I suspect my 'pulpier' direction is also what killed the magazine (Oops!). It was that period a few years ago when the die-hards of old school Pulp seemed to be very picky about who did what with the beloved style. LCL Mag had a good run for about a year, then downloads waned to a comparatively dismal low in January 2009 so I couldn't justify the time it took to create each issue. I like to think I made some contribution to a wider interest in New Pulp which I am convinced will also serve to keep the genre alive for decades to come -- as long as it doesn't simply seek to be a replica of original Pulp. New Pulp must push the limits by applying our contemporary sensitivities to the classic setting, albeit without social anachronisms.

I think along with Steampunk and New Pulp, an appreciation of history will serve to save classic adventure for the future generations. I specifically mean an appreciation not predicated on throwing out the baby with the bath water. There are plenty of writers already whose works reflect what we in the 21st Century all agree were not so peachy about the past. We don't need to re-hash that here. Classic adventure through a New Pulp and Steampunk filter keeps the past fun in escapist fantasy terms. What it also does is influence folks in our times to embrace elegance and civility again, more so than we've seen in the past twenty years. There were some things a hundred or more years ago that needed to be changed, and they were, 'nuff said. But there were also some things about those times that we would have been better off had they never gone away. Oh well, distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? What I mean to say also is this: that as an appreciation of history can lead to enjoyment of classic adventure, an enjoyment of classic adventure can lead to an appreciation of history.

The title of this implied a direction. I'll state more clearly if I haven't: classic adventure needs to continue its embrace of Steampunk and New Pulp and also include actual history to keep what is good there alive as well. I don't like to say 'in my opinion' because I find that redundant, so let's all agree (whoever reads this posting) that when I'm saying something here unattributed to elsewhere, I am expressing my opinion.

OK, I wrote this to hopefully spark a conversation, so let's hear it...Tell me what you think and please please please direct me to new voices I need to know about!

(You thought I was just gonna post ads all the time didn't you? ;) )

Bedside Book

2011-06-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Having spent a little time in Central Asia, specifically Afghanistan and Pakistan, I can't wait to dive into my next bedside book.

This one is Soldier Sahibs by Charles Allen

Naturally, a report will follow...

Travels

2011-06-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

I've been digging through the archives again...

Here I am on Lake Titicaca shortly before we embarked and then on the Island of the Sun...

I took this with an Advantix camera that was stolen from me near the end of the trip...

While kicking back in a quiet corner and listening to music on my iPod, I was visited by this interesting fellow...

More to follow...

New Pulp Double Volume

2011-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

LCL has just released a double volume of E.A.Guest's racy brand of pulp adventure on Amazon Kindle!

Together in one volume are the first two Julius Corbin adventures offering adventure for mature readers. The first book introduces the saga with a new take on Haggard's She, this one set in South America. Secret of the Amazon Queen is currently in motion picture pre-production development with Barron Entertainment.

Tropic of Despair is the second book in the series and a more world traveling adventure as a young Scotsman looking for his lost father teams up with an explorer seeking the Hollow Earth and a possessed man who they find on a haunted ship. In Mexico, they join Julius Corbin who guides them all through a dark underworld and on to Patagonian terrors. Looking to return home a worldly hero to win the hand of a young lass, the Scotsman is pursued by a lusty girl and the sorcerer who controls her for his own diabolical aims. Will he survive frightful ghosts, bloodthirsty giants and sinister demons to find his destiny?

You get both books in one volume for only $1.99!

The graphic above is the full cover and spine on the print-on-demand edition available at Lulu.com. The Kindle edition features the 'Secret of the Amazon Queen' cover graphic.

If you haven't read this classic of New Pulp, this is where the adventure begins! See the link in the links column to the right of the page...

Travel Photos

2011-06-22T02:57:00.000-07:00

Sharing travel photos is a tradition that began with photography itself and something I enjoy. I've posted some from my travels here for you to enjoy and perhaps start a discussion.

This is from my trip to Peru with the WEX Club in 2003. We were en route to Bolivia...

Here I am in Khartoum, looking across the Nile from the Mahdi Wall...

Tula, Mexico, 2002.
Here I am with one of the Atlantes statues...

That's me in Jordan...

Tashkent,Uzbekistan.
I would transit through here to and from Afghanistan. This was an area near the park and the walking street we called 'Broadway'...That is a statue of Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Astronaut...

Here's the boat aboard which we crossed Lake Titicaca and got caught in a dangerous electrical storm...

More to follow...

The Atlantean Series

2011-06-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

You can now get three of the first four titles published by LCL -- in printed editions-- as part of our Atlantean Series.

The Sunken World by Stanton Coblentz is the book that launched LCL in 2002. It is the tale of a submarine crew lost to the depths during a battle and how they discover the sunken civilization of Atlanteans living in an undersea city. Originally written as a serial in 1927, this is a reprint of a 1948 single volume edition with a few illustrations. The LCL 6x9 paperback edition comes with a new cover designed by Bob Aul.

Atlantis Adventure by Antoine Gagne (2004) is the story of Talos and Malia who survive the fall of Troy by fleeing together across the sea, through the straits of Gibraltar where they reach Atlantis. This romantic adventure tells the story of the final days of the great civilization and its destruction. LCL presents this in a 6x9 paperback with a Bob Aul cover.

The third book in this package set is The Hidden Trail by Thomas Janvier, a reprint of the 1890 original, with illustrations, tells the story of a small expedition seeking a lost city of Aztecs in Latin America. This is the first of a two-part presentation published by LCL in 2005, the second soon to be released in digital and POD. 6x9 paperback, cover by Bob Aul.

We are offering these three books in a triple set of new LCL printed first editions. This is a cover value of $34 offered here for the great low price of only $16 for all three, plus $4.95 shipping (and plus tax for CA residents)(no refund, no return, not responsible for shipping damage). This is a great offer you can't find anywhere else for these printed unused books. If you're a classic adventure fan, you'll want this set on your shelf! You'll find the PayPal button on the upper right of the blog page...

Adventure Art Collection

2011-06-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

I spent the years 2000 - 2005 traveling around the world, spending a month or more at a time in the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, South America, Eastern and Western Europe and one trip to the Philippines. During this period, I began to collect oil paintings and other works of art and handicraft.

Most of the oil paintings in my collection were obtained in Jordan and Iraq, though I did pick some up in Khartoum. The artists in Jordan had attended an art school in Iraq and are able to replicate any style or piece. I didn't press them to reveal whatever trick or method they use, but I assume they have one. Generally, I would buy paintings already completed from dealer artists in Sweifiyeh, a shopping neighborhood in Amman, Jordan and its vicinity. I did commission one painting, a replica of a Rolf Armstrong piece which I will photograph clearly and post sometime. The artist did a great job and I could barely tell a difference -- and I mean barely.

This is one of my favorite pieces. It hangs in my office area, within view of my desk when I write.

I really enjoyed buying the paintings in my collection. Naturally, they were quite less expensive than oil paintings are priced in the US and I could sell them for a lot more than I paid. However, my collection reminds me of my first world travels so I'm not really inclined to part with them. As I get them properly photographed, I will post more articles about them, why I bought each one, and what they mean to me.

More to follow...

Great Deal On Classic Lore!

2011-06-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have, in limited quantity, new copies of Lost Continents & The Hollow Earth by David Hatcher Childress and Richard Shaver -- for the best price anywhere that I have found!

For any adventure fan or author interested in the topic, this book is a must-read AND a must-have for your collection. Childress provides a thorough overview of the lore of lost civilizations and presents whatever evidence may exist for the existence of hidden ancient tunnels and subterranean cities. Also included is the legendary tale of Admiral Byrd and his alleged encounters with flying machines of the Antarctic and journey to a 'land beyond the Pole'. If underground worlds of South America and Tibet are your guilty pleasure, or especially if you're an author of pulp adventure, you will want this book in your collection.

The special treat of this 6x9 illustrated paperback is the inclusion of the original 1948 edition of Richard Shaver's I Remember Lemuria and The Return of the Sathanas published by Ray Palmer in Amazing Stories. Many have heard allusions or read references to these works, but this volume includes them in their entirety -- including several original illustrations!

Writers and enthusiasts, don't pass up this offer! Only $5 at the link on this page (upper right) plus $4.95 shipping (and I have to charge tax for California residents), is better than the price you'll find at Amazon for a new copy of this book. Get yours now! (No returns, no refunds, not responsible for shipping damage)

LCL In Its Ninth Year!

2011-06-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

It was September 2002 and I was in Khartoum, Sudan, when I got the idea to establish Lost Continent Library. The original concept was a printed magazine, but before I got home from the thirty day trip I had decided to make it a publishing company.

Just today I was going through some old backup CDs and found these graphics.

The original logo banner created by Bob Aul, essentially borrowing the Spicy Adventure Stories font at my request.

The very first print ad that appeared several times in World Explorer Magazine, once in Rockabilly, and several other places for a few years.

One of the test galleys for the cover of Tropic of Despair, using green titling instead of the ultimate purple.

I enjoy going through old files now. It's been long enough to start recycling some of the better images and especially bring out the unused ones. In the nine years LCL has been in business, the company has experienced highs and lows and a transition from traditional print publishing to all digital and POD. Thematically, LCL has gone from strictly classic adventure to embracing a steampunk touch and expanding with additional imprints for true science fiction, noir caper thrillers, and non-fiction. Probably the most exciting is that an LCL book is in motion picture development nearing pre-production. Enthusiasm around here has been stoked by the response to the change and I look forward to bringing more titles and writers to print and keeping classic adventure alive. It all makes me itchy to do another magazine!

Anyone interested in another LCL Magazine...?

Stanley & Livingstone

2011-06-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Currently my bedside book is Into Africa by Martin Dugard.

I bought this book when the paperback edition was released then moved before I could get to reading it, thus it has spent a few years in a box I had in storage. Recently I Netflixed a Stanley and Livingstone movie starring Aidin Quinn so I was primed to pull the book out and give it a go.

The book goes back and forth between Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone as one draws near the other. Back in college, I had written my term paper for a History of England course on this topic but never got beyond the basic encyclopedic details. This book has been rather enlightening, bringing more texture to the story than I had known. For those not familiar with this story, during the middle of the Victorian Era, the British Royal Geography Society explored Africa top to bottom, side to side, thus creating the backdrop, lore and tableau for countless adventure books and eventually movies. The very image of the khaki clad explorer with pith helmet and rifle comes from this period, nearly spanning the entirety of the 19th Century. Dr.David Livingstone, who was, following Sir Richard Francis Burton before him, the most popular of the explorers of the Dark Continent, was lost and presumed dead by some. All the British led expeditions to find him ended in failure but American newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett Jr put journalist adventurer Stanley on the job, which was kept secret, at first. The most familiar story has Stanley finding Livingstone and uttering the famous quote, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"

As the book Into Africa reveals, the details of the story make it all the more interesting. I haven't finished it yet, but Stanley is a mere few hundred miles from Livingstone where my bookmark is currently tucked. So far, I have learned much more about both men, and even more reasons to respect and be amazed at the men who braved such exploration. Between the insects and the rigors of malaria and other forms of fever, including elephentiasis, it reminds me of what I do appreciate about our times. Probably the most enlightening is what is revealed about the two men themselves. Livingstone was a missionary, literally a man devoted to 'spreading the word', yet he also enjoyed the carnal delights Africa had to offer as regularly as available. Stanley, usually portrayed as the stalwart American hero good guy, appears to have actually been quite an asshole on many occasions. His view of the African porters trudging his gear through miles of jungle and other treacherous terrain was generally disdainful and often abusive. He is the only explorer I have ever read of being disrespectful to Sidi Bombay, the best known guide who worked with Burton, Speke and just about every other major African explorer of the 19th Century. Stanley, according to Dugard's book, had a checkered past as an explorer before the Livingstone expedition, once betraying a male colleague to a gang rape in Turkey to save his own ass. Throughout this book, one sees a Stanley going through several bouts of malarial hell and other fevers without much grace. To be fair, most people would likely not show their best side under those conditions, but much of Stanley's bad behavior occurs in between fevers when his wits were apparently clear. Admittedly, I haven't finished the book yet, so a redemption through revelation may yet happen to Stanley, but so far he's often a class A jerk. Still, I'm enjoying this read very much, as the details make it all the more textured and colorful. I must also note that there is a school of thought among some Brit writers that require the trashing of Americans and an American expedition finding Livingstone after so many British expeditions failed, during the height of Brit reputation for exploration, is rather embarrassing.

I recommend Into Africa to any fan of real life adventure and would like to see a movie based upon it. At one time, Robert Redford was reportedly interested in the story, but I haven't heard much about that since it was reported Brad Pitt was doing Lost City of Z. What a double feature that would make!

New LCL Website Coming Soon

2011-06-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

I figured after a few years, it's time to have an actual website.

I have a Lulu shop page, and Yahoo Groups pages, plus an LCL Facebook page. But it's been a few years since 'lostcontinentlibrary.com' -- which I lost because I obtained it in the 'Olden Days' of Register.com and they wouldn't let me take it for less than $300. It now belongs to a guy in Korea. He can kiss my ass if he thinks I'm paying him a dime to get it back. Most likely it will be at my web hosting space on Yahoo, presently occupied by wonderoftheworlds.com. I will let you all know when the revamp happens and it's up as a full-fledged LCL website, where you can see pages dedicated to the authors and their works, an online form of my old and once popular magazine and purchase ephemera such as tee shirts, mugs and the like. I'm actually quite energized to get this going again!

Right now the cafe is closing, so it's off to B&N then home where I plan to make another posting tonight... See you in a little while...

The Wonder of the Worlds Trilogy

2011-06-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

For those who are new to LCL, I would like to direct you to Sesh Heri's amazing trilogy.

Wonder of the Worlds is the first book and it has received many positive reviews since its release in early 2006. It was featured at the International Tesla Conference in Zurich and was the best selling book at the 2006 AUP 'Ancient Science & Modern Secrets Conference' where the author was the most popular speaker. The story follows Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain and a young Harry Houdini on a journey to Mars in 1893 to retrieve a stolen synthetic crystal which the emperor of the Red Planet intends to use in his conquest of Earth. This is a science fiction fantasy adventure certain to entertain steampunk fans as well...

Metamorphosis is the darker second act.

It is 1915 and Houdini has become the famous escape artist we all know today. Together with Jack London, a young naval officer named Chester Nimitz, and Nikola Tesla, Houdini goes up against Martian agents on Earth who are being manipulated by a terrible and powerful foe called the NYMZA, tyrannical beings from another dimension. Romance springs up between Houdini and Charmian London in this one, as it did in real life. Together, Houdini and Charmian encounter the devastating visions of a future dominated by the mysterious time-bending, planet-destroying device known as 'The Bell'...

The Lost Pleiad brings the trilogy to a wondrous and thrilling climax as Nikola Tesla returns center stage in the search for Amelia Earhart whose secret mission was far more astounding than anyone would ever imagine.

Tesla and Marconi bring their incredible technology into the search to face off against the Martians one last time as the Nazis begin to wreak havoc in the world...

The Wonder of the Worlds Trilogy is a must read! The first book is now only 99 cents. You can get the entire trilogy for $10, all at Amazon Kindle. And don't forget, you don't need a Kindle Reader to read Kindle books -- the Kindle software can be downloaded FREE at Amazon...

Look at some of the reviews:

"It was a great pleasure for me to encounter the novel Wonder of the Worlds by Sesh Heri, which creatively incorporates these themes into an interplanetary thriller involving amazing escapades of Mark Twain, Harry Houdini, and Nikola Tesla."
--MICHAEL CREMO, author of FORBIDDEN ARCHEOLOGY

"Throw Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla and Harry Houdini into a fictional plot involving a nineteenth century voyage to Mars and chances are the result will delight anyone who, like me, has a penchant for pulp SF..."
-- JOHN BERLYNE, SFREVU.COM

"A truly outstanding book! You will have a hard time putting it down -- It's that good!"
-- FRANK GERMANO, www.frankgermano.com

"History and imagination collide into the most fun read I've ever had!"
-- DAVID HATCHER CHILDRESS, Adventures Unlimited Press

"I loved it!"
-- GREG BISHOP, author of 'Project Beta' and 'Weird California'

Give this trilogy a serious look. Read the first book for a mere 99 cents and see for yourself...

Raiders and Tintin

2011-06-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Don't forget this is the 30th anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
One of my best memories is seeing a sneak preview at the old Crest cinema in San Bernardino a couple of months before the general release. The Crest was the theater in which the original King Kong was tested before an audience in 1933, so there was some stellar adventure history there to begin with. I attended the Raiders sneak with my dad and there were only three other people in the theater, one of them a guy in my filmmaking club. Spielberg's last film had been 1941, his major (and only, I think) flop, and they were being rather close to vest with this movie. We knew from the rolling stone ball moment that this was gonna be a great movie. I remember driving my friends crazy with urging them to go see this movie. I still watch it once or twice a year.

It's fitting that Spielberg is releasing The Adventures of Tintin this year, and it looks like a lot of fun. I am usually opposed to CGI-reliant movies, that is I really dislike when CGI serves as primary image during action moments when live action would have fit better. However, if the entire movie is CGI, that can be OK because it's simply the latest form of animation. I have always liked Sky Captain, for example, because it was promoted as a digital-set and location movie and it looked good. Anyway, I think the best uses for CGI are these: to be used as matte paintings were originally used, to enhance visuals in a subtle way; and when the visual style of the material is so unique or recognizably part of its success that it would actually disappoint to see depicted any other way. This is the category in which falls The Adventures of Tintin.

Herge's Tintin has a distinct look that is a primary reason people recognize it instantly. To merely put actors in costume just wouldn't do the movie justice. Remember the Popeye movie with Robin Williams? Doing Tintin all CGI is the only way to go. Check out the trailer, if you haven't seen it, and I think you'll agree. I'm really looking forward to The Adventures of Tintin...

More to follow...

Comic Con 2011

2011-06-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

Once again, LCL will be represented at the San Diego International Comic Con, starting in just a little over a month from now. This will be the seventh year I have attended with my entourage, and the fourth year attending as a professional in the publishing industry and media.

In 2004, Hollywood had already invaded, but since then its imprint has grown a bit exponentially. This has generally been received with mixed review for the comics enthusiasts see an encroachment on their event that was never intended. However, the explosive interest Hollywood has given to comic book characters has indeed been a boon to the comics industry. Still it remains a double-edged sword for many. As far as the Comic Con is concerned, the down side is the crowding. Also, why are television shows like The Office represented at a convention primarily founded upon a comic book theme with a heavy support from fantasy and horror and adventure media? Another legitimate gripe is the heavier presence of the gaming industry each year. Many argue they should have their own con, as many argue that Hollywood should simply establish a new movie or 'media' con. The worst example of the Hollywood impact on the San Diego Comic Con resulted from last year's Twilight event which resulted in thousands of die-hard comic and fantasy fan attendees not able to obtain tickets because thousands of teen girls had scooped them up early for a one hour event on one day of the Con. A Hollywood event promoting a non-comic movie sequel preventing thousands who would have attended all four days (or at least two) pissed off a lot of people. Add to that this year's new draconian ticket policies for professional attendees and you have even more dissatisfaction with an event other cities are already aggressively seeking to take away from San Diego.

I hope San Diego makes the necessary changes to improve the situation and keep the Comic Con. Anaheim wants it badly and many of us think the Hollywood influence will seduce the Con administrators to move it closer to L.A., which would suck. Like myself, I know many attendees who would not go to the event if it moved to Anaheim. It just wouldn't be the same and it would be even more Hollywood, being closer to the studios and their personnel. Who knows? Many of us publishers and writers might get bumped so that more badges could be given to movie industry folks. Regardless of this bit of aggravation, I know we will have a good time. I will attend with a smaller entourage this year, but that's better than not going.
I must caveat that with the possibility that this could be the last year we go in a capacity other than directly promoting a media project, a la Secret of the Amazon Queen next year.
As we draw nearer to the Con, I'll be making more comments here. I like to put the word out that any LCL readers and fans are welcome to join us downtown in the evenings. Last year we met up with a couple of LCL readers, and the year before with an LCL friend from Germany. We can be found at Tilted Kilt or Hooters or some Con night event.
More to follow...

SECRET OF THE AMAZON QUEEN Movie Update

2011-06-13T21:05:00.001-07:00

Yes, it is still true! I will be directing the film adaptation of the E.A.Guest novel from LCL. Barron Entertainment and Lost Amazon Motion Pictures are the producers...

Presently, the producers at Barron have me directing a documentary this summer. SOTAQ will begin pre-production simultaneously, specifically storyboarding and production art, as well as costume design. As that progresses, I will post samples here to give you a peek. The documentary is being produced for festival and cable distribution then DVD. The producer has a relationship with HBO so cross your fingers it appears there!

SOTAQ will be filmed on a sound stage in San Diego, on location in Louisiana (Yes, believe it or not there are jungles there that look like South America!), and B roll will be shot in Peru or Brazil. I am also excited to reveal that we will be shooting practical visual effects -- that means miniatures, NOT CGI! Actually, there will be some CGI, but only to enhance certain visuals, not to serve as primary imagery. My casting director and I have begun a list of casting targets -- and you'll recognize names on that list.

I will share one little secret: Several months back, I met with a particular actress who is causing quite a stir in a blockbuster comedy currently playing in theaters. A role in SOTAQ has been enhanced especially for her and she loves the script! She wants to be in the movie and her agent/manager wants her to do the movie. When we ink the deal with her, I'll reveal who it is...

For those who have read the book, the movie is clearly the same basic tale but with a few changes. First, in order to keep the budget under control, a major subplot from the book has been replaced. I am VERY pleased with this change. Also, the period has been updated just a tad: the movie will take place in 1909 and have a real steampunk flavor, in certain regards. Yes, there will be airships and biplanes! With those come a couple of cameos you may find amusing...

I don't want to say too much right now, but keep checking in here. I will be posting more regularly!