#SupporttheGeeks, Chevelle and Secret Life of Pets Reviews, and Ninja News

Last Wednesday, I was at guest of Tyrean Martinson’s as part of her Five Reasons to Write series. Mine involved music!

Thanks to everyone who entered to win the CassaSeries playing cards giveaway! There were a lot of you, but there can be only one winner:

Mason Canyon at Thought in Progress!

Congratulations and enjoy!

#Support the Geeks

Geekdom House is running a campaign over the summer called Support the Geeks. There are some great articles, features, and giveaways being posted over July and August, and they are encouraging the use of the hashtag #SupporttheGeeks to support geek creatives—content producers, actors, artists, and writers. Some people are tweeting at their favourite artists to say thanks, some are making daily blog or Facebook posts about geek stories that have changed their lives. Check out Geekdom House (and their current art giveaway) and join the fun!

Here’s my geek story that changed my life:

Spurred by science fiction like Star Wars and fantasy like Terry Brooks, I began writing as a teen. Then, just before this series debuted, the image below image appeared in TV Guide:

Drawn by Frank Frazetta, that black and white image with the downed ship on the barren planet and other ships overhead sparked an idea. I began writing and soon had a mostly complete story. I stuck it in a drawer and worked on other things and eventually forgot it.

Around eight years ago, I found that crappy early story and decided to rewrite it. In 2010, it became my first published book, CassaStar.

And my life has never been the same since!

Chevelle – The North Corridor Review

After the success of the last album, I wasn’t sure this one would be as tight. Fears unfounded – this is a very solid album.
With the exception of the song Punchline, it’s a really heavy album from start to finish. The music is fierce and a couple songs have an almost punk edge to them.
There are several standout tracks, including Joyride, Rivers, and Warhol’s Showbiz.
If you dig Chevelle, you’ll love this album.
They are also on tour right now and put on a great show.

Movie Review

The Secret Life of Pets

Max has the perfect life until his owner brings home another dog and the two get lost in New York.
For whatever reason, I didn’t find this film all that funny. In fact, it had some mean-spiritedness to it. The best parts were the beginning and the ending where the pets were interacting with their owners. When the animals were on their own, it just wasn’t that engaging. It also wasn’t particularly memorable.
My wife didn’t think it was a great movie, but she laughed a lot and called the film cute.
There was a short before the film that involved the Minions on a quest to make money to buy a blender for juicing bananas. It was very funny.
Kids and pet owners will probably enjoy this film. Everyone else, you are on your own.

Ninja News

Mark Noce set up a Thunderclap campaign for the release of his first fantasy book, Between Two Fires. You can sign up HERE.

Karen Walker is putting together an anthology on aging. If you are fifty or older, visit her blog for details on how you can contribute.

Special thanks –

I want to thank Truedessa for her poem about Aden and Tamsin, the main characters in my Dragon of the Stars. I was honored to finally see some of the fanfiction she is writing!

And thanks to Pat Hatt and the Cat for a funny poem involving Mini-Alex. At least he is out of the litter box now…

Finally, don’t forget – Star Trek: Beyond comes out Friday, July 22! Already getting great reviews. And last week, Blastr featured some amazing artwork celebrating not just Beyond, but fifty years of Star Trek. Live long and prosper!

Any Chevelle fans? See Secret Life of Pets? Can you contribute to Karen’s anthology? (Sadly, I’m old enough I can.) Seeing Star Trek: Beyond this weekend? And do you have a geek story?

My wife and I are taking a short vacation and I’ll be mostly offline Thursday through Saturday. I will return comments though!