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The podcast interview that I had a few weeks back has been mostly edited down. If you were not able to tune in live (talkshoe crashed about 20 minutes in), I spoke on writing techniques, working with artists, the comics industry - as well as talking about Temple - for about 6 hours.

Part 1 is located here.

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I was trying to keep this story innocent and cute, but I couldn't get away without throwing in some of the adolescent humor that this series is known for.

Some of that "teenager" humor. :P

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The podcast interview that I had a few weeks back has been mostly edited down. If you were not able to tune in live (talkshoe crashed about 20 minutes in), I spoke on writing techniques, working with artists, the comics industry - as well as talking about Temple - for about 6 hours.

Part 1 is located here.

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Back in my kitchen, as Amanda and Trevor prepare dinner she starts teaching Trevor some general tips in flirting. The knife helps keep his attention. ;)

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This was tons of fun to shoot in Lincoln Square. While shouting in the middle of the sidewalk, "I've forgotten how to flirt...just like I never learned how to read!" a woman came strolling by laughing her ass off.

Always a fun time.


The podcast interview that I had a few weeks back has been mostly edited down. If you were not able to tune in live (talkshoe crashed about 20 minutes in), I spoke on writing techniques, working with artists, the comics industry - as well as talking about Temple - for about 6 hours.

Part 1 is located here.

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Non-dating Trevor seems pretty clueless about women. He's not cuddling back, not flirting - And Amanda's noticed it too. What's going on here?!? Perhaps we'll find out on Friday.

Also, the podcast interview that happened a week ago has been under constant edits (because I spoke for almost 6 hours on comics, writing, working with artists, as well as on my comic series The Temple of a Thousand Tears), and part 1 is available for your listening pleasure.

LINK

Streaming and downloads of the podcast are at the bottom of the page. Let me know what you think.

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Gonna be another crazy busy week at work. Looking forward to it ending soon.

Getting my convention and speaking schedule together for 2010, and should be making some announcements in the near future about my appearances. Looking forward to a fun filled year of cons and fans.

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While this may come off as TMI (too much information), there's a little truth in this statement. I have a bald spot on my calves on both legs. I'm told this is because my pants just so happen to rub against my legs there, but who can say for certain. I needed something to be a conversation stopper, so I went with that. :P

See you guys next week!

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If you tried to stop in for the podcast with TGT Webcomics yesterday, then you know that the talkshoe client crapped out on us about 20 minutes in. This means that while you were not able to listen in live (without Skype), the show was recorded and will be available for download and streaming soon. I now hold the all time record for longest interview on that podcast (4.5 hours), and I had so much more to talk about. We really didn't get a chance to get into the prequels at all, and I wanted to give some more teasers about the impending sequel (because I love to tease). Come 1am, though, it was time to go to bed.

I'll post a link to the stream / download as soon as it becomes available. Kurt (the host) tells me that he's going to edit it down so it's not 4.5 hours. ;)

Movie Review: Avatar (2009)
Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, CCH Pounder
Plot: Stop me if you've heard this one before: Friendly scientists, Mean space marines, Greedy corporate guys, a main character trying to prove himself, and a discriminated people all have disagreements and duke it out. The difference here is the backdrop: an alien planet called Pandora - which is the real star of the movie.

Jake Sully (Worthington) is a space marine in a wheelchair. When his twin brother is killed in the AVATAR program on a planet called Pandora, they bring in little Sully to take over. The AVATAR program allows humans to pilot empty vessels that look like the indigenous people, called The Navi. The idea is to use the AVATARs to diplomatically relocate the Navi away from their home, which is the largest source of this mineral that Greedy Corporate Guy (Ribisi) wants. However, the trigger-happy military wants little Sully to do recon work for them so they can come in and blow everything up.

It's like Fern Gully meets Dances with Wolves, only with the action and direction of Aliens.



During his first mission in the AVATAR, Sully gets separated from his scientist buddies (Weaver and Lang), and is saved from an onslaught of local predators by a Navi named Neytiri (Saldana). Because she sees some (sentient?) seeds attract to him, she takes him to the village where the elder says that she must train him in the ways of the Navi.

Thus begins the purpose of the movie - learning about another culture and starting a student / teacher romance, and all the while showcasing the fantastic visuals and details put into the world of Pandora.

But just in case you have a short attention span when things aren't going boom, the military guys are still gathering intel and plan to forcefully relocate the Navi people. And it's up to Sully to stop them.



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My review above doesn't give the movie justice, so let me just say this: I went to go see this movie three weeks after it was released to theaters on a Monday. This is not really prime time for a theater to have a lot of patrons. I was expecting a handful of people when I got to see the flick in 3-D (which is the only way to experience this movie, by the way), but what I encountered was closer to opening night crowds. The theater was PACKED. I thought I would at least have a seat to put my winter coat on, but no. Coat was on the lap, people on both sides of me, every seat in the house was filled. It was insane!

Thankfully, no one talked during the movie. And no cell phones went off. I was very happy with that.

But I was simply amazed by the turn out three weeks after being released.

The star of the movie ("the draw," if you will) is clearly the WETA effects and the world of Pandora. The flora AND fauna. There's so much to soak in visually that it almost demands repeat viewing. But not in a bad way. You want to see some of the fantastic images that they bring to life in this flick. I was nervous that this movie (like other sci-fi special effects movies, cough cough "Star Wars" cough cough) simply couldn't live up to the hype that it was generating. Let me put your fears to rest: it SURPASSES them.



The pictures don't do it justice. The trailers don't do it justice. This movie will be a different / lesser experience on your small screen (but I'll no doubt still buy it). This movie is a reason to go see something in theaters. This is one of those rare "event movies" where going to the theater actually means something.

WETA has created another standard for special effects in movies, and it only took them 14 years to do it this time (last time it took them 5-7, with Lord of the Rings). The time and effort clearly show through.

Like any good fantasy story, the writers use the narrative to introduce you to the world that they have spent so much time creating. Unfortunately, there are some areas here that fall flat in the film. For example: the planet has a toxic air to humans, yet still has water and produces rain (so there's hydrogen and oxygen in the air). What about the air makes it so toxic? Little things like this stuck out to me, since I had so many more questions about the world of Pandora (and the world that the humans came from) as the credits were rolling. The ending narration says that the people went back to heir dying world - but they never mentioned Earth has being a dying world before. Is that why we were on Pandora mining this substance? What would that substance give us?

I suppose in the grand scheme of the story these questions are not very important, but for someone who has started lecturing on crafting fictional worlds, I'd like to know more. Perhaps the 9+ hours of special features on the blu-ray will enlighten me (we can only hope there's 9+ hours of special features).



The movie is long (2 hr, 40 min) but doesn't feel long at all. I didn't find myself checking my watch or shifting in my seat. I was engrossed in the world of Pandora. The 3-D effects were both subtle and in your face, but I think it was the subtle ones that stuck out the most to me. When little lightning bugs are flying around and popping up in your face, I felt compelled to brush away whatever was interrupting my view of Pandora. But it wasn't interrupting - it was engrossing. You start to feel like you're actually there.

There are a few items that people tease about when it comes to the look of the characters, namely that the Navi are not unlike Smurfs. First off, notice that James Cameron is obsessed with the color blue. The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies - there's a lot of blue lighting in those movies making the characters look blue. When given the opportunity to just change their skin pigment, it's the color that he chose. Had his favorite color been red or purple, there wouldn't be any Smurf references.

Cameron's return to movie making is certainly a triumphant one. I've liked all of his movies that I've seen previously (yes even Titanic, despite Leo Dicrapio's best efforts), and this is no exception. I had previously been skeptical about his wanting to adapt Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita for the big screen, but now I'm not so certain I'm fully opposed to it. I'm optimistically curious.

Go see this movie. In 3-D. Bring friends.

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Marielle's on the job. I thought it funny to try to compare one of her hits to an undesirable date.

So who is this guy she's meeting, and why is she killing him? We'll find out!

Just a reminder, I'm being interviewed by TGT Webcomics on January 12 (tomorrow) at 8pm central time. If you tune in live, you can ask questions either by calling in or by posting them in the talkshoe chat. We'll be talking about The Temple of a Thousand Tears exclusively, so be sure to check it out.

If you're not able to make it live, the show will be stored in the archive and I'll link to it on the website.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

Monday, January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. To participate, we formed the Comic Creator's Alliance--a group of over eighty comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered our artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause. You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year. Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won't end until awareness is raised, and people like you and me take a stand.

So here's what we did: each creator contributed an original drawing of one of our own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, Marsh Rocket, The Uniques and three IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more! Donate today to download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from January 11th - 24th. All proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House- two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

To learn more about the Comic Creator's Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com. To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Note: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

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Just a reminder, I'm being interviewed by TGT Webcomics on January 12 at 8pm central time. If you tune in live, you can ask questions either by calling in or by posting them in the talkshoe chat. The show requires that I give away a spoiler, so perhaps something juicy will be revealed! Be sure to check it out.

It seems like Jessica's opinion has been changed by the magical hat. Her and Amanda may be teaming up to try to get Trevor to reciprocate the warm and fuzzy emotions. Let's see if they are successful!

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Hey gang, I hope you all had a great new years!

My book signing for Indy Comic Book Week was my most successful of all of my appearances so far. In the 4 hours that I was signing I sold more books than I did at the book's premiere! Plus, I met some awesome fans - new and old. It was a great time, and I will certainly be doing more signings in the near future.

In case you didn't know, I'm being interviewed by TGT Webcomics on January 12 at 8pm central time. If you tune in live, you can ask questions either by calling in or by posting them in the talkshoe chat. The show requires that I give away a spoiler, so perhaps something juicy will be revealed! Be sure to check it out.

I'm putting together my convention schedule for the year, and will be announcing that soon enough. I may be hitting a convention every month, especially in the mid-west region.

Alright, I'm off to get through this week of work (the week after holidays is also very stressful, but I'm hoping that it'll only be crazy for a week...two at the most). See you all Friday!

Movie Review: 9 (2009)
Director: Shane Acker
Plot: Waking up in a destroyed room with a dead old man in it, 9 wanders out into a post-apocalyptic world populated by 8 other rag-dolls characters and a handful of red-eyed monsters called The Beast. Taking a small green device from the room with him, 9 encounters 2 who is being chased by The Beast and is eventually kidnapped.

Now, 9 must gather the remaining rag-doll creatures and try to rescue 2, while understanding what the mystery of the green device is and how it all ties into what happened to the world.

From having first gleaned the trailer for this movie, I knew I wanted to see it. I watched the 9 minutes award-winning short film that it was based on and instantly went into media shut-out mode. I didn't want anything about this movie spoiled for me. And it was not disappointing.

Well, the visuals weren't disappointing. The story was flat and the movie was basically just an action movie with computer animated rag-dolls, but man was it ever a fun ride! I kept wanting more from it in terms of story, sure, but the visuals more than made up for the lack of plot in the flick.

Shane Acker did not disappoint on the direction, considering this is his first feature length movie. Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov have their signatures all over this movie, but instead of coming off clunky like a lot of creative collaborations (cough cough Indiana Jones 4 cough cough), this movie flows and synergizes with ease. The action is great, and while there's hardly any characterization, the drama in the direction and the danger from the sequences is enough to make you sit on edge and hope for these characters. And with a PG-13 rating, you know that not everyone is going to walk away from this story....

...or if you didn't, then I just spoiled that for you.

In summary, it's a visually excellent movie and exciting action flick, but lacking in story and characterization. So it should appeal to most movie-goers. :P

I tease.

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Back to the old man narrator...but who could he be talking to (we'll find out in this story)? Has he been talking to this person all along throughout the prequel stories? How did he get his hands on Marielle's personal diary? And why is this information so important...?

Finally, by popular demand, Marielle's fateful events in her own words.

Happy 2010, everyone!

Be sure to tune in on January 12 (8pm central time) for my live interview on TGT Webcomics. We'll be talking about The Temple of a Thousand Tears and you can ask questions via call-in or the talkshoe chat room. Ever wanted your questions answered by the creator of a comic series? Now's your chance!

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Happy new year!

Don't forget I'm being interviewed by TGT Webcomics live on January 12 at 8pm central time. Sign into the chat, call in, ask questions and listen to answers about comics, my projects, and any crazy things that you want to ask.

Looking forward to it!