July 28, 2013

Author Interview with Stephen Whaley + Giveaway

Hi Stephen, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Sure thing. I’m 29 years old, and I currently live in Fes, Morocco, where I handle the I.T. needs of a private American school. I’m also working on my MBA.  My hobbies are reading, writing, and anything else nerdy.

What do you think makes your genre special?
Science fiction is often a vehicle to tell great stories because not only can we describe what we imagine the future might look like, we can put characters into unique moral dilemmas that really get people thinking.

July 21, 2013

Author Interview with Dom King


Hi Dom, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself.
I'm 30 years old and I work as a global economist by day in the UK. I play and watch a lot of sport, especially football, rugby, cricket and hockey. I have traveled extensively through Europe and Latin America as well as China and speak French, Spanish and Portuguese. I like setting myself physical challenges - over the past couple of years I climbed the three highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours and also completed a triathlon.

July 17, 2013

Now You Can See Me - Movie Review

The movie begins like Ocean’s Elevens, in which the magicians are picked up depending on their styles. We have a magician, who lost its former glory, only reduced to use his tricks to bang some girls. Also the thief who is broke and a hypnotist who acts like a smart-ass… which is hilarious by the way. The fourth member of the four horsemen is a woman who can escape from everywhere, which exists in the whole movie is reduced to be the love interest of the other members. She has absolutely no purpose. On the other hand we got the three “antagonists”. An FBI Dectictive who dislikes his job and doesn’t believe in magic. An Interpol female agent, which acts always unprofessional and has no other purpose than being his love interest. Yes, the women are only nice looking sidekicks, at best. The last one is Morgan Freeman, an ex-magician who now has a show about uncovering their tricks.

The story is split in three arcs. Every arc covers one of the shows of the four horsemen with all their nice tricks. The smaller one is explained right on the stage and give hindsight what trick they will use in their grand finale, which always resolve around the fact, that they give their audience money from several bad companies. The show and explanations are really nice and nothing unknown for people, who saw a few magic shows and they of their tricks. They make sense and are great captured by the camera. The two detectives on the hand play the role of the unknowing watcher who grasp by everything the magicians do, always just toyed with. 
The grand finals of their show on the other hand are at least possible, but look ridiculous. It's like, alright it would be possible to do in real life, but what would be the chances making it work so perfectly? None, besides some really bad computer effects that doesn’t make sense and wouldn’t be explained. It's like, the trick would never work so let us go forward and ignore the principle of explaining everything. 
At the end of the movie happens a lengthy action sequence which feels forced. It is too long and depends too much about the fact, that they fight against magician with throwing cards and “teleporting”. It's nice but not astonishing. Most of the time we get dialogues that are enlightening by  some good jokes, which are the best thing about the whole movie. The movie would have been boring without Woody Harrelson and Morgan Freeman. Jesse Eisenberg and Mark Ruffalo on the other hand didn’t do well at all. I’d expected more from such great actors.
 
In conclusion: 
The movies had a great idea and manages to go with it till the end with decent explaining. Nothing that happens is jaw dropping and sometimes the movie felt long, besides its 2h run. The cast is great and most of them at least act decent. They the best part of the movie. Besides the unnecessary of female characters and forced love story is the story itself interesting. The ending on the other hand is just bad. You won’t guess it, but that doesn’t mean it is a great one.

July 14, 2013

Author Interview with J. L. Petty

[Picture by Bokka

Hi J. L. Petty, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself. 
I published my first book “Death and the Journalist” with Solstice Publishing last year.  My stories range in contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy fiction. Over the years, I’ve written for various magazines and have been featured as an author in several anthologies. Most recently, my work has appeared in Screem Magazine’s November issue.  I’ve also contributed a short fiction piece to Dark media online. It is called “Malice”. 

I discovered a love for writing at an early age.  As a sophomore in college, I started working as a contributor for The Virginian Pilot Newspaper. After working with the local newspaper in my hometown, I began a career in entertainment journalism; which I loved.

July 7, 2013

Author Interview with Julia Hughes

Hi Julie, first of all, could you tell us a bit about yourself.
Hello Patrick, and sure thing! I'm an eldest child and walking my younger brother and sister to school and back, I'd tell them stories – a captive audience! On leaving college, I worked at the BBC, helping write stories for their "Schools' Programmes". That was back in the day, before satellite telly made it over to the UK and 'Auntie Beeb' ruled the air waves! I gave it all up for the good life, and moved down to Cornwall, one of the most beautiful counties in England, and often known as 'God's own country.' I think the greatest compliment I received was 'Julia's more Cornish than the Cornish.' I picked daffodils in winter and made pasties for the holidaymakers in the summer. But all good things come to an end: I upped sticks to be closer to my family, and landed in a little village just outside London, and have been here ever since, scribbling away at my stories.