No, not my book and movie. I wish! But while I’m busy deadlining today, here for your perusal are … The Advisor. A novel being being published in blog form by our own “Jake MacGregor.” You may know this fine gentleman and darned good storyteller from the comment section. Atlas Shrugged, Part 2: the website! According to Jim B. in the comments, the site has recently gone up. If all those years of Hollywood “development hell” didn’t deter John Aglialoro from producing part i, it appears that disappointing ticket sales and predictable critical slams aren’t going to kill part II.…
Category: Books and Movies
I just got my semi-annual royalty check from Paladin Press this morning. It was … not good. To say that sales of the newest book are abysmal would be charitable. I feel horrible because the book was done at (Paladin boss) Peder Lund’s special request and I hate the thought of letting him or anybody at Paladin down. Maybe it’s that the book is political and Paladin is fundamentally an action-oriented publisher. Maybe it’s timing. But then, too, the book hasn’t gotten much, if any, promotion aside from a few radio appearances and some kind comments on Amazon.com. So perhaps…
Stuff I’ve been collecting for use in larger essays that I’ve decided just to toss out here: Found this while researching the history of the Fourth Amendment for a S.W.A.T. magazine article: “In praise of John Wilkes: how a filthy, philandering dead-beat helped secure British–and American–liberty.” Overall freedom rankings by state. To be taken with a grain of salt, of course. Your personal freedom doesn’t depend on your state’s. But it’s interesting. Especially for anybody seeking a new place to live. Ego-boo. Look what I found at #10 on a list of 1214 Books You Must Read Before You Die.…
We all know John Gilmore’s famous dictum: “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” True, but with governments doing what they do (and with more bandwidth being centralized in the hands of fewer, larger ISPs), routing around damage isn’t necessarily an automatic thing. From C^2 comes word of a new book (available free in HTML, pdf, and epub, available for purchase in dead tree format): How to Bypass Internet Censorship. Forgive it for opening with the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights; to some people in the world, that’s an improvement over what they’ve got locally. I haven’t…
Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat: One Man’s Solution By M.D. Creekmore Available from Paladin Press Available from Amazon.com $12.00, 79 pages, 2011 While many would-be survivalists were waiting to win the lottery or planning to discreetly bump off a rich uncle to build their Ultimate Survival Retreat in Idaho (complete with underground bunkers, escape tunnels, a decade’s supply of dried lentils, and customized Super Whizz-Whacker 3000 rifles at every lead-shuttered portal) … a handful of authors have been telling us how to do it another way: cheap. First came Brian Kelling with his Travel-Trailer Homesteading Under $5,000 Then along came Phil Garlington…
I can now confirm that the rumors are true. The rumors aren’t as exciting as the ones about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child or even the ones about Botox Mom. But they are true. I’ll be with the Backwoods Home gang at the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup, Washington, on the weekend of June 4 & 5. I’ll be there signing copies of Hardyville Tales and (if the Duffys permit) taking orders for any and all of my books from other publishers. (I can also take advance orders and hand your autographed copies to you at the fair.) The event…
Fangirls (and fanboys) were concerned when the very blonde Jennifer Lawrence was cast as the olive-skinned, dark-haired, vaguely ethnic Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming Hunger Games movie. Looks like no problem. The first photo is out — and that’s Katniss as any reader might envision her. Lawrence has the acting chops and the heart to carry the role, too. I can’t wait to see this very freedomista movie (and sequels) made from the very freedomista Hunger Games trilogy. Sorry about the “lite” posting. I’m mulling not one but two “heavy” topics and might not have tons to say until they’re…
In the Mothers Day spirit: 11 Awwww-Inspiring Surrogate Moms. Mozilla says “NO” to the DHS. Wonder how that’ll work out. Good for Billings Gazette readers. Boohiss to Best Buy for firing an employee who did the right thing. The 10 secret warning signs of inflation. 🙂 So what do you think happened to silver last week? And where’s silver going from here? Torture: “Still Stupid, Still Wrong, Still Immoral.” The only thing wrong with Dahlia Lithwick’s opinion is that she doesn’t state it emphatically enough. “The Emperors’ Clothes.” A heartrending cry as Pakistanis wake up to their governmental catastrophe, post…
This is a damned depressing week. The bloodlust, the knee-jerk government worship, and the “I’ll kick your ass if you don’t agree with me” attitude about bin Laden’s death remind me (ironically) of the weeks following 9/11 when half the country went insane. I’ll probably have more to say about that, but right now I’m in one of my Deep Thought modes. I’m useless while I’m thinking. So here’s a little more miscellany while my brain churns. More long-time health-and-diet wisdom bites the dust. Pity the poor folks who’ve subjected themselves to tasteless food for years. “Man Raised by Parents…
It’s a young-adult series of books whose heroine is a not-totally likable teenage girl. Despite her flaws, she’s beloved by two handsome hunks, both of whom are brave and noble and fascinating. But not to worry. I’m not talking about Bella, Edward, and Jacob or any of their silly, horribly written ilk. The three on my mind do one hell of a lot more than play “vampire baseball” (whatever that is). Two inadvertently spark a revolution, in which all three play a part. And never fear, macho guys, the love triangle supports the story; it doesn’t take up hundreds of…