Sesh Heri Working On New Novel!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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...