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August 2006
What's Up With UsThis Month?
Publisher's Note: This month, the Broadband Editorial is devoted to news items about the primary active associates of Far Sector SFFH Magazine. Click on a name for info..
Shaun Farrell
August was an eventful month. I attended the awards ceremony for the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest, which you can read about that in this month's Singularities column. Then I attended the WorldCon in Anaheim. I learned a lot about this SF/F/H field I have entered, and I met many professionals who treated me like a friend and let me hang out with them. In addition to the excitement of Worldcon, I'm now a professor! No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. The Literature Department at Point Loma Nazarene University has brought me on board to facilitate a literary magazine workshop, and to teach a basic composition course. My official title is Visiting Adjunct Professor. It's a great opportunity, and one I am enjoying thoroughly. In news about my acting career, I finished the shoot for a short comedy called The Meeting. I spoke about this last month, and let me tell you, playing a crazy guy who thinks squirrels are taking over the world (ed. smiley: Faun Squirrel or Shaun Farrell?) is just as much fun as it sounds! Once the film is showing in festivals, I'll let you know. For more about me (if you're a sucka for punishment), check out [website gone, sorry; JTC2022Reno].
My life seems like one big blur the past two months. I went to Westercon, the official SF convention of the west coast, in June. While there I had the opportunity to meet some nice folks, like Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Larry Niven, Walter John Williams, and Evo Terra. If you don't know Evo Terra's name, than look up his podcast on itunes, Dragonpage: Cover to Cover. Or visit www.dragonpage.com. He and co-host Michael have a great show.
Anyway, then last month I spend four exciting days at Comic Con International. That event is overwhelming, with more than 125,000 people attending. I went to fascinating panel discussions, bought some books, and stood five feet away from Christopher Judge, who plays Teal'c on Stargate SG1. I also had the pleasure of meeting authors Greg Bear, Tad Williams, Josh Conviser, Troy Denning, Karen Traviss, Aaron Allston, Elizabeth Bear and the executive producer of the original He-Man, Lou Scheimer. You can expect interviews with many of these folks in months to come.
I also finished my novel Night of the Blood Monk. Now comes the task of selling it, which is the hard part. Also, on the acting side of my life, I have been cast in a short film called The Meeting Room. I play a nice young man who thinks squirrels are taking over the world. Funny stuff. I'll let you all know when and where the film can be seen once I know.
That's all for now. Until next time, happy reading.
Dennis Latham
The Bad Season is hanging in there with sales and some good comments from readers. I'll be having two signings at some point in the near future. One is at Boswells, a restaurant-bar in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati, and the other will be the Mack Bookstore in Harrison, Ohio. I will also probably be speaking on writing fiction at my old high school, Aiken, in Cincinnati. I was in the first graduating class from Aiken in 1964. I'm also starting a huge editing project (three books) for A-1 Editing Service, finishing up another, re-editing my own Lord of Homicides; read and made minor edits and comments on a really cool nonfiction research book by John T. Cullen called Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado.
Dennis has released a print edition of his novel The Bad Season. He has been doing signings and mailings, and a remarkable series of successes have already occurred in just two weeks. Dennis says: "I sent flyers to local libraries, hoping librarians will decide to buy my book. They have four copies of one of my books in the Cincinnati library.
"The Cincinnati Enquirer has published a favorable review of The Bad Season, along with info about me.
"The Owenton, Kentucky newspaper contacted me this morning and they are doing an article on the book early next week. They interviewed me over the phone and I'm sending a picture. The book takes place in my fictional Owenton.
"POD Girl On Demand, the website that reviewed Michael In Hell last year, was kind enough to mention The Bad Season on her blog. The top five books she picked last year out of the 50 reviewed, (Michael in Hell was one of the 50) now have major publisher contracts. She went through 6000 POD books to pick the 50. I sent her the link to the article and she said she would write something up for the site about the book. That's really cool. She gets a couple hundred thousand hits a month."
A Hollywood producer is currently reading The Bad Season.
John K. Muir
Award-winning John Kenneth Muir is currently working under deadline pressure on his fourth book of the year. The books already finished and awaiting publication by McFarland are Horror Films of the 1980s, TV Year Volume I: (2005-2006), and The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia. We expect a rousing media article from JKM in October, and also some more information about these great new books—including the title of his latest.
July-August 2006 Here is John's website.
John Kenneth Muir recently wrote and shot his own low-budget, independently produced science-fiction TV series The House Between, and is now editing the seven episode sequence.
Also, he's currently toiling on his twentieth book, TV Year—Volume 1 (2005 - 2006). He eagerly awaits the publication of his most recent efforts, McFarland's Horror Films of the 1980s, due January 2007, and Applause Theatre and Cinema Book's The Rock and Roll Film Encyclopedia, due next Spring.
New in print in July '06 is John's study of independent filmmaker Mira Nair, Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair; and a softcover re-release of his successful Analytical Guide to TV's One Step Beyond.
John T. Cullen
September 2006 Here is John's main personal anchor website.
Wow. Another busy, busy month. Working at the hotel in this amazing resort city (sunny San Diego, my home!) is wonderful enough. The hotel has asked us to know as much as possible about the history of San Diego, Coronado, and the Hotel Del Coronado, so that we can answer questions posed by our guests and passengers. One leading item is the notorious and sensational 1892 true crime of the *Beautiful Stranger*, as the mysterious guest is often known. With my background in journalism, academia, and other venues plus Literature and History, I have been salivating to dig into this gripping tale. It's a story of loose ends and baffling dead end leads; I call it a 'brittle cold case.' I'm sure I have come up with the most plausible explanation of what occurred here during Thanksgiving Week 1892. I have no real interest in the famous ghost legend. Skeptical, rational as I am, I'm interested in the true crime aspect. My view is: If you believe in the ghost story, my research will show you how she became a ghost. If you're interested in the true crime angle, I can show you the most plausible explanation for her violent and unexplained death that made headlines around the nation in 1892. Could there be a book in the works?
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Update 2008
The following information, revised in 2022, covers a developing story of how I painstakingly did a rational, academic analysis of the 1892 true crime that resulted in a famous ghost legend. The title is Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, based on a hotel term ('dead move') for moving a frightened guest and their baggage from a haunted or otherwise undesirable room to a regular, safe one (I'm not kidding). I followed this up with a period noir thriller novel (fiction) titled Lethal Journey, which is closely based on my scholarly analysis, but beefed up as a thriller by adding the Tom Morgan element of the famous ghost legend. It was too good to pass up. But in reality, I don't think Tom Morgan ever set foot in San Diego. Long story short, I combined both books in a duet titled Coronado Mystery. First book reading at the local store Bay Books in 2008 drew a standing room only crowd. The topic continues to be my best seller. [JTC 2022]
Gaslamp Atmosphere & Wonder. I'm fascinated with the Victorian era gaslamp atmosphere we find in films like The Illusionist and The Prestige; not to mention Merchant Ivory productions like Howard's End (based on the 1910 novel by E. M. Forster. The English major in me revels in the many other gaslamp period connections, including the classic novel by Thomas Hardy, published in book form in 1892, (Tess of the d'Urbervilles), which was made into stunning 1979 film titled simply Tess, starring
Nastassia Kinski. I'll stop there with the references because the story goes on and on (I discovered) from an evident 1892 coverup to protect the Spreckels family (John Spreckels owned the Hotel Del at the time) to a global tale stretching from Coronado to San Francisco, to Honolulu, and to the court of Queen Victoria in London. Now back to 2006…
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And there's more! Aside from the baseline work (running a magazine and a publishing house, and a part-time job as a limo driver for the hotel) I have thought about writing a San Diego Tour Guide (canceled; 2022 update). I have been readying the promotional materials for my little seasonal fantasy novel, The Christmas Clock, which I expect to release around December 1 of this year. (2022 update: in January 2008, Ray Bradbury, yes the great author, sent me a personal rave to tell me how much he loved it!). I recently published The Bad Season by Dennis Latham (Horror) and Spring & his Summers (Erotica) by Peter May.
I am preparing for the republication of my former iBooks/Simon & Schuster titles, The Generals of October (political thriller) and A Walk in Ancient Rome (Ancient History/Travel). I have a whole lot else going on, but that's all for now.
July-August 2006 Here is John's website.
All my info is available at my personal author website. I have a full schedule of books in progress as well as reprints. I am consolidating most pseudonyms into my real name, keeping John T. Cullen, Jean T. Cullen (my real name), and John Argo. I'm eliminating the Ann Cymba and Terry Sunbord monickers. I've already finished the transition on my Fictionwise page, but republishing over a dozen books through LightningSource will take months more.
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Brief 2022 Explanation. In the late 1990s, I published my books online in HTML format, before e-commerce. Soon, we started making forays into for-pay formats like Rocket e-Book and LightningSource. Around 2002, I moved all my ebooks to Fictionwise, leaving the print editions at LightningSource. Then, in the mid-2000s, I moved all the print editions to Amazon. The e-books mostly stayed at Fictionwise (not all, but some) until Barnes & Noble killed off Fictionwise (end: January 2012). Since 2012, the primary publisher for Clocktower Books CTB) has been Amazon KDP. I still have a backlist and at least one active title at Smashwords. Primarily, look for my e-books at Amazon KDP. As to print books, you can either order from Amazon or buy at Barnes & Noble. This applies to my small number of remaining CTB authors as well.
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For Spring 2007: I continue to care for my older titles while steadily writing a book a year into the future. Older titles include thrillers like Siberian Girl and CON2: The Generals of October by John T. Cullen. More info soon. TBD.
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Notices
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Books Received
Books and materials received may not be shown here, but will most likely be reviewed or discussed in our columnists' monthly articles. See appropriate column for info.
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