Venom Review; IWSG, WEP, and Special Course; Extended Aquaman Trailer; New Releases; and Movie Trivia

Venom Review

Tom Hardy’s character acquires a symbiote from space while snooping around an eccentric billionaire’s science lab. He and Venom become one.
I had a lot of fun watching this one. The action shots are a bit of a throwback, and the film is a mix of superhero, science fiction, horror, monster, thriller, and action. Add some humor and a dash of romance and you have quite the blender movie.
Now I’ve never read the Venom comics, so I don’t know how close it stuck to the source material. I will say the villain was a bit two-dimensional and could’ve used a bit more empathy and fleshing out.
Hardy, however, was great in the role. He pulled off the physical humor well and it will remind you a little of Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead II. It’s Hardy’s performance that sells the story and he was brilliant.
The relationship between Hardy’s character and Venom was great and rather funny. Again, credit to Hardy for pulling it off. The story played the human element right, giving the relationships just enough screen time.
And all head chomping by Venom is done off-screen.
It’s not a great film but it’s definitely a fun way to pass the time. Recommended.

Extended Aquaman Trailer

Over five minutes of awesomeness!

IWSG

Thanks to everyone who participated last week, including the awesome co-hosts and admins.

Speaking of co-hosts we need some!!! We need two more for November 7. Plus if you can co-host on January 2 (the day we announce the winners of the IWSG Anthology Contest), that would be great.
Co-hosts just have to visit twenty blogs in their given range.
Leave a comment here or email me if you want to volunteer. It’s more fun on the host side…

We have a date for the next #IWSGPit Twitter pitch – January 15, 2019!

Visit the IWSG site for details.

You don’t want to miss it.

Don’t forget that the IWSG has partnered with Write…Edit…Publish!
This month’s challenge - Déjà vu or Voodoo.
Add your name to the list, write your story, post on your blog or Facebook, and visit others.
And there are prizes!
Full details at the WEP site regarding genre, length, etc.
Déjà vu or Voodoo – do you?



Here are the propts for the IWSG Instagram the next two months:

IWSG member Christopher Votey has created a cool course and program and IWSG members get a discount!

My course is Digital Notes Organizer – Making Your Personal Encyclopedia. The first part will teach you how to put a wiki on your computer that is 100% private and secure and can be integrated with Dropbox for backup purposes and being able to share with others.
The second part of the course teaches you how to use wiki software, great for your installation and for being able to edit any online wiki (ie, Wikipedia, Wikia).
My course is $49.99, but I want to do something special for all of those who’ve show support for this site. When you check out, enter the following codes:
IWSG80 – Get Course for $9.99 (10 Available)
IWSG50 – Get Course for $24.99 (20 Available)
IWSG25 – Get Course for $36.99 (50 Available)
Get the full details at Christopher’s site and take advantage of his generosity!


Finally, this is the last month to submit to the IWSG Anthology Contest.
Young adult romance is the genre and masquerade the theme.
Entry is free, just need to be a member of the IWSG on some level.
See the site for details.
Don’t miss this opportunity to be in a royalty-paying anthology!

New Releases

Elements of Untethered Realms
A supernatural compilation of the anthologies Twisted Earths , Mayhem in the Air , Ghosts of Fire , and Spirits in the Water . These forty thrilling tales feature authors Angela Brown, Jeff Chapman, Cathrina Constantine, Julie Flanders, River Fairchild, Gwen Gardner, Misha/M. Gerrick, Meradeth Houston, Graeme Ing, Simon Kewin, M. Pax, Christine Rains, Cherie Reich, and Catherine Stine.
Find it on Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble

The Alien and the Teacher by Susan Kelley (Gourley)
Gwen is exhilarated to be part of Earth’s first space colony until a handsome alien with his own agenda makes contact.
Now available on Amazon

Raven’s Sight, Willow Harbor #8 by Juliana Haygert
Sometimes in order to let go of the past, we have to fight for our future…
Get it from these retailors



 

Movie Trivia

Anyone else see Venom? Excited for Aquaman? Can you co-host? Participating in WEP or the anthology contest? Picking up some new books? And do you know the trivia?

RiffTrax on Amazon, The Accountant Review, Devin Townsend Project, Movie Trivia and Answers, and Ninja News

I was to feature a guest today, but it fell through. And that’s all right. I recently told Truedessa that I wanted to scale back. Less promoting and more about what I want to share. I want to share more amazing speculative fiction stuff. More cool movies, more prog rock, more geek happenings and items. And certainly I want to share news of the IWSG and my books and writing.

The posts will still be packed, but it will be with geeky goodness!

RiffTrax Now on Amazon Prime!

My wife discovered that RiffTrax is now on Amazon Prime.

So of course, we had to watch one.

And our choice led us down a dark road…

Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe
This movie may have been forgivable had it released in 1971. That it came out in 1990…shame on everyone involved. It’s the equivalent of a dumpster fire three weeks after a garbage strike.
There’s no point in summarizing, because it’s completely inane.
And it starred Jesse Ventura in a role that should’ve killed his political career. Like, nuclear bomb killed.
Fortunately, RiffTrax manages to make the unwatchable hilarious!

Movie Review

The Accountant
First, I don’t understand the wide split in critics’ reviews. How could one not be entertained by this film or appreciate its clever uniqueness?
And it was original and clever. It was smart and subtle rather than in your face dumb action.
Great performances by everyone, especially Affleck. It was cool to watch a character who was a high-functioning autistic who possessed incredible math skills – and who was a trained killer.
It has a slower pace, but there are many great action sequences. The fights were more about stealth than over the top.
Recommended.

Music Review

Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence

For those not familiar with the artist, and that’s unfortunately a lot of you, Townsend has been making music very a very long time. He began as the singer for Steve Vai in 1993 and since then he’s separated himself as a truly unique singer and personality.
Over the years, he’s been the creator of several projects including Ocean Machine and Strapping Young Lad. Transcendence is the culmination of everything he’s done so far.
It’s progressive rock, which means it’s very complex, but it’s also very accessible. It features some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. The songs are incredibly layered and rich, resulting in a sound that is both moving and sonic. Listening to Transcendence is more of an experience than anything else.
If you enjoy powerful and melodic music, you’ll enjoy this album. As the title states – it’s transcending.

And while you read the rest of this blog post, please enjoy my favorite song on the album, Storm Bending. This is the generic YouTube video, but if you want to see the brand new video that plays more like an epic movie, visit Vemo. Believe me, it’s amazing!

Ninja News

There were two very special posts this past week. Toi Thomas gave a great review of CassaFire and Truedessa wrote the most amazing poem about the Dragon. Thank you, ladies!

Reedsy Learning
Presenting a new learning platform for writers - Reedsy Learning>
From Reedsy Co-founder, Ricardo Fayet:
Reedsy Learning is a brand new learning platform for authors. It offers free courses on pretty much every subject useful to an author, from story inception to marketing the book. Better yet, we've leveraged our network of friends and professionals to make sure each course is taught by a relevant industry expert.
Here's how the courses work:
• you can register for only one at a time
• you get 1 email every day for 10 days
• emails are 5-min reads (max)
• emails are sent in the morning (your timezone) so you can read them while sipping your coffee
Sounds like a great deal – and it’s free!

The IWSG Anthology Contest is open two more weeks! If ever there was a year to enter, this is it – we’ve not had as many entries as last year, so the odds are better. (Unless everyone is just polishing and will send the final week, which is possible!) Theme is fantasy/hero lost – 3000-6000 words. Make it happen!

New Releases

A special new release from one of my best blogger buddies and fellow IWSG admin:

Cling to God: A Devotional by Lynda Young

Find Cling to God: Amazon Paperback, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Oz Kindle, Nook, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Goodreads.

Way to go, Lynda! This book will be a blessing to many.

Christmas Pets & Kisses anthology
Featuring Sold! by J.L. Campbell
Find it at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo

Ghosts of Fire anthology
From Untethered Realms
Find it at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo

The latest Six Strings is out!
This is Issue 8 and it’s packed with awesome content.
Visit the site and download your free copy.

Movie Trivia

Movie trivia answers from last week:
1 – Iran, John Goodman, movie – 2012 - Argo
2 – Football, Tim McGraw, homeless – 2009 – The Blind Side
3 – London, Kate Winslet, Peter Pan – 2004 – Finding Neverland
4 – Coal mining, Laura Dern, Sputnik – 1999 – October Sky
5 – Arabia, Omar Sharif, cowboy – 2004 - Hidalgo
6 – Musician, Reese Witherspoon, legend – 2005 – Walk the Line

This week – hit men/assassin movies. Name the movies from the character names and the year:

1 - Leon and Mathilda, 1994
2 – Ed and Anton, 2007
3 – Vincent, Jules, and Butch, 1994
4 – Ah Jong, Jennie, and Yi Ying, 1989
5 – Arthur, Steve, and Big Harry, 1972

Who’s ready to binge-watch RiffTrax on Amazon now? Were you misfortunate enough to see Abraxas without their help? Did you see The Accountant? Ready to check out Transcendence? What about Reedsy Learning? Did you get the trivia right? Now, what about this week’s trivia?