E. R. Torre is a writer/artist whose first major work, the mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe, was optioned for motion picture production by Platinum Studios (Men In Black, Cowboys vs. Aliens). At DC Comics, his work appeared in role-playing game books and the 9-11 Tribute book. This later piece was eventually displayed, along with others from the 9-11 tribute books, at The Library of Congress. More recently he released Shadows at Dawn (a collection of short stories), Haze (a murder mystery novel with supernatural elements), and Cold Hemispheres (a mystery novel set in the world of The Dark Fringe). He is currently hard at work on his latest science fiction/suspense series, Corrosive Knights, which features the novels Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon.
Been a while since I’ve written about, well, my writing, so here goes:
As of yesterday, Valentine’s Day, I finished the first full draft of book #5 of my Corrosive Knights series. This book follows Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, Chameleon, and Nox, all available through Amazon.com (Click here for the Amazon link)
The latest book in the series is, effectively, the conclusion to the first major Corrosive Knights story line.
That’s not to say, however, that the upcoming book represents the last of the Corrosive Knights series.
Like all books I write, this one involved many many hours of very hard work and, given I’m “only” at the end of first draft stage, there’s still plenty of hard work to come. To give you an idea of how much more I’ve got to do, I’m usually comfortable enough with my books to release them after doing at least five full revisions/drafts. In the case of the upcoming book (note that I’m keeping the title to myself at the moment), I suspect it too will take roughly that amount of full revisions.
Still, the biggest hurdle is getting that first full draft done. It represents a “complete” road map of the story I’m trying to tell. In turn, the second full draft, which I began working on today, represents the second biggest step forward in getting the novel out there. My focus on the second draft is to get all major and minor plot points clarified and/or “punched up” for maximum impact. Subsequent book drafts (ie 3 through 5) tend to focus more on smoothing whatever verbal imperfections or grammatical errors I can find and, therefore, tend to be completed quicker.
I’ll be working very hard for the next few months on this, the latest book in the Corrosive Knights series. I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and I think those who have read the first four books in the series will get a huge kick out of this, the fifth one.
I’ll be moving very fast -but not recklessly fast- on these revisions.
Trust me, I can’t wait to get this book out there.
Read about this movie in an article concerning movies audiences missed out on in 2011 and gave it a try.
I’m glad I did!
In a nutshell, A Lonely Place To Die concerns a group of five mountain climbers who stumble upon a little girl locked up in a box buried below ground. They save her from her captivity and then have to face the cold-blooded individuals who put her there in the first place.
This is a low budget film that does not feature huge special effects and is far from your typical “Hollywood” action spectacular. The heroes are down to Earth (no pun intended) and the villains are really fearsome. If the film has any real big problem, it may be the final act/conclusion. It’s not that the film had a “bad” ending, but after such great sustained intensity in the first two thirds plus of the film, the ending felt a little too ordinary.
I suppose almost all films of this type, where “city” folk face peril in the rugged and unforgiving outdoors, work in the very tall shadow of Deliverance, and in the case of A Lonely Place To Die, perhaps like Deliverance the film might have been a little better if it kept the villains’ identity and intentions more nebulous.
Just a thought.
Still, A Lonely Place to Die is a strong, intense suspense film well worthy of your time. It may not completely stick the landing, but it does a great job in getting your juices pumping.
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before (part 2): Idyllic guy and idyllic family move into an idyllic home out in the suburbs, only to find that there was a brutal murder committed there a few years before. Strange goings-on ensue…
The last time I used the above opening was for The Bourne Legacy (read the full review here) a film that, ironically enough, also starred Rachel Weisz.
In the case of Dream House, Daniel Craig is Will Atenton, a family man who at the start of the film quits his job and heads to his “dream house” where his wife (Rachael Weisz) and two daughters are already living. Now free of his city job, he plans to settle down and write a book, fix up the house, and bask in his close relationship with his wife and young family. But strange things, of course, are afoot and husband and wife discover that five years before the family who lived in the house -all but the husband- were brutally murdered. The husband was shot in the head by his wife, an act the police believe was meant in self defense. However, much as they suspect the husband killed the rest of the family, there isn’t enough evidence to verify his guilt and the man was sent to a psychiatric hospital and, eventually, released…
…is he now stalking Atenton and his family? What are his plans…if any? And what about the family’s neighbor (Naomi Watts, completely wasted in a role I suspect was considerably trimmed down as the film was made)? What secrets does she hold?
The little plot presented above gives you most of what you need to know about this film before treading dangerously close to SPOILER territory.
Which I will do now.
BEWARE….SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!
Still here?
Ok, you’ve been warned. The upshot is this: Will Atenton, we find, is in reality the man who previously owned the house. He is indeed the man people think (but couldn’t prove) killed his wife and two children. In Atenton’s current fantasy world, he quit his job in the “big city” but in reality was released from his psychiatric hospital and returned to his vacant home. His wife and children are hallucinations or, as revealed later in the film, actually ghosts he alone can see. The mysterious neighbor, of course, knows who he is and humors his hallucinations/visions. Of all the townsfolk, she alone suspects he didn’t have anything to do with his family’s murder.
Eventually it is revealed this is indeed the case, that the murderer is actually the neighbor’s ex-husband (a short fused bully of a man who wants sole custody of his child from Naomi Watt’s character) and his partner in crime, a thug he hired to kill his wife but who went to the wrong home (I think…I might have been hallucinating myself by that point in the film).
Most of this, by the way, is revealed in the theatrical trailer, presented below. Seriously, studios…why bother making the film if you’re going to give almost everything away in the trailer?
Anyway, Dream House, unfortunately, is not a very good film. It never really engages you and when the big reveal comes so early in the movie you can’t help but wonder (and predict) why any time at all was spent on the neighbor and her short-fused ex-husband. As mentioned before, Naomi Watts is wasted in what amounts to a very small role and I couldn’t help but think that there were considerable changes made to the screenplay as filming was done. Why, after all, would Naomi Watts, a big star and listed as second star in this film after Daniel Craig, agree to do such a, in the end, small role? Further, the pace of the film often lags and tests one’s patience. Given how easy it is to predict where the movie is going, that becomes a double problem.
If there is one bright spot it is a sequence toward the very end, a genuinely emotional final scene between the haunted Atenton and the ghosts of his deceased family. I found this part to be incredibly well done…emotional, exciting…even sad. I wish the rest of the film could have been half as good as those few minutes.
As good as the scene is, it does present one of the film’s most glaring plot holes: If it is confirmed that Atenton is not hallucinating but actually seeing the ghosts of his dead family and they are trying to help him…why didn’t they reveal everything to him earlier? Why didn’t his wife tell him who actually killed her and her family? It makes no sense at all.
Needless to say, unless you’re really, really bored and would like to see Daniel Craig doing something a little less “suave” than James Bond, there is little reason for you to bother seeing Dream House.
In the What-The-Hell-Could-They-Have-Possibly-Been-Thinking Department I present to you: The Big Bang.
No, not the popular TV show with the similar name, we’re talking about the 2010 direct to DVD feature film starring Antonio Banderas as private eye Ned Cruz on the trail of hulking Anton “The Pro” Propov’s (Robert Maillet) lost girlfriend…a woman we find he never actually met but interacted with through mail she sent to him while he was in prison.
Right away the more perceptive out there will recognize the movie’s initial plot is a direct rip off of Raymond Chandler’s classic novel (and several times filmed) Farewell My Lovely, wherein private eye Phillip Marlowe helps hulking Moose Malloy try to find his lost girlfriend after he leaves prison.
Anyway, the film goes off on its own (very strange) directions from that initial point. The story is told in media res, with our hero shackled, bleeding, and blind and being interrogated by three police officers over the events that have led him to this point. We start with the conclusion of a very strange -and as far as I can see completely irrelevant- previous case involving an actor (James Van Der Beek in a cameo) and some dirty laundry he has that’s about to be aired. That segues into our hero being hired by the hulking Anton to find his girlfriend….and eventually some missing diamonds.
Much of the dialogue and settings in the film makes references to physics and scientific concepts (hence the title) and it is there we find the movie’s first big flaw: Using Antonio Banderas as the lead. Mind you, I like Antonio Banderas. I think he’s a pretty damn good actor but let’s face facts: He speaks English with a strong accent and this is a terrible hindrance in a movie where he’s called upon to spout plenty of “clever” dialogue…with scientific ideas sprinkled quite liberally into them.
Still, there is stuff to see and enjoy in the film, including one of the most bizarre (though undeniably sexy) love-making sessions committed to film. Its rare when you don’t know how to react to a scene wherein a character in the movie (played by the stunning Autumn Reeser) makes love while spouting very physics heavy dialogue involving such sexy subjects as protons and electrons.
I can only imagine how they went about filming that scene. If anything, the lovely Mrs. Reeser deserves some kind of award for playing it with a straight face!
Alas, despite being so “smart”, this film is ultimately pretty dumb. The plot devolves as it plays out and the revelations of who the “bad guys” are were simply too obvious almost from the beginning. Finally, the ultimate “reveal” of who was sending the notes to our hulking ex-con elicits unintended laughter (The filmmakers were trying to go for tragedy here…weren’t they?!).
No, I cannot recommend this film to your average movie goer.
…and yet…
This is such a bizarre movie experience that its hard not to recommend it to at least one group of people: Those looking to see something that’s truly waaaay off the beaten path.
Fascinating article, found on Slate magazine, concerning 1922 test footage of Kodachrome film. This represents some of the very earliest color film footage ever:
I tend to agree with the article: Bank robbery is too high risk/low reward. Interestingly, ATM machines are hit and electronic types of theft continue, but it appears actual, physical bank robberies are on the decline.
Fascinating article by Lee Spiegel for HuffingtonPost.com concerning members of the World Economic Forum (yes, the World Economic Forum) at Davos wondering what the social implications might be if evidence of Extra-Terrestrial is realized within the next decade:
Given the advances we’re in discovering what lies in other solar systems, it appears logical that eventually we will find a solar system, and subsequent planet within that solar system, that is near identical -or close enough- to conditions on Earth to wonder if there is life on said planet.
As with the previous decade in terms of scientific advances, I look forward to see what happens next.
They will, it should be noted, continue their package delivery on Saturday. Package delivery, in this modern computer (Amazon) world, remains a vital way of getting products to people and therefore has a definite future.
Mail, on the other hand, is becoming less and less important as a way of communicating between people and/or paying bills.
It’s fascinating to see how much of an impact computers have had on the general economy.
Record/Music stores? Pretty much a thing of the past thanks to MP3s.
Bookstores? Rapidly going the same way thanks to Kindle, Nook, and tablets in general.
Someone much smarter than me (sorry, don’t recall who exactly who) noted in a business column that the future of certain retail stores may be small kiosks. You go into them, look at the latest models of, say, computers/tablets, then go to the counter and pay for your order. Your purchased order is sent to your home by the same or next day (package delivery becoming more and more important).
If this is true, the U.S. Post Office -and indeed all package delivery specializing companies- should focus on improving their package delivery. Regardless of whether the kiosk idea comes true, it seems logical that the business of package delivery will continue to be lucrative in this day and age.
Fascinating article by the always readable Andrew O’Hehir for Salon.com regarding the possibility that Football, the King of Sports in the U.S.A. today, may be in trouble:
I’m a big fan of the sport of Football but I totally agree with Mr. O’Hehir’s article. In fact, I’ve even written about this before (you can read about it here).
The fact is that as the sport of Football has became more “professional” over time and athletes had the time and means to build their bodies to their absolute best, the subsequent hits between players became harder and harder. And while their bodies may be at their peaks, there is simply no way to build one’s head and brain so that it too can take all those jarring hits.
The other scandals Mr. O’Hehir notes are worth mentioning as well, but I think Football’s eventual downfall will come because of the continuing revelations of just how much brain damage the players who participate in the game receive.
As I said before, I happen to love the sport. But one has to be truly blind and uncaring about others to defend a sport which slowly kills a person’s mental -and physical- abilities.
