Mind Sieve 10/20/23

News/Musings	Newsletter Swap 1
Mini Movie/Show Reviews	StoryOrigin Swap 1
Movie/TV Show Previews	Just for Fun!
Solving Puzzles with My Fury Friend Group Promo	Into the Void Group Promo

Salutations!

We’re almost to Halloween and then full tilt toward Thanksgiving and Christmas! Are you ready for it? I’m not! Eek!

🎃👻👹

News/Musings

We found out a few weeks ago that our puppy (if you can call a 70-pound dog a puppy, but she’s not a year old yet—so technically, she is one…), has NO hips! She literally has no hip sockets for her back legs. The vet has seen partial sockets before but not none.

She does have the sexiest swing walk. Now we know why!

We have to wait until she’s a year old to start looking at options. She’s not in pain, but it could become painful later. Pic of the x-ray and Xena Puppy Warrior Princess below.

Hip x-ray for Xena Puppy Warrior Princess

Xena Puppy Warrior Princess

Writing news

I’ve done a couple of passes to The Music of Death Blues, and it’s on the editor’s To Do List! Yay! I should have it back in December. 🤞 Then I’ll need to go through the edits, set the pre-order, get a book tour booked, ads, review copies, etc.

After much thought, rather than do a prequel short from Dai’s point-of-view or a story about Prince Razor’s origin, I decided to put the two together! (I should have thought of this in the first place! DOH!) Working on that sucker now and will hopefully send it to the editor about the time the official date for the book’s edit is due.

The current tentative title for the short is “Dai and the Prince” or “The Prince and Dai” – I’m not married to either, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to send them along! The story will involve storms, in case that helps. If I use your suggested title, you’ll get a mention in the ebook and also in the newsletter!

Once that’s done, I can go back to Book 2 of the Discoveries of Julia Xero. It is now tentatively titled Secret Aftermath. This means I’d be locking myself into all the titles in the series needing to have the word ‘secret’ in them. Hate it? Love it? Please, feel free to let me know!

Back to schedule juggling! 🤹

Extra stuff I’ve shoved in here:

1) Newsletter Swap 1 (UBL/Freebie)

2) StoryOrigin Swap 1 (Audio Freebie)

3) Solving Puzzles with My Furry Friend Group Promo

4) Into the Void: Dark Fantasy and SF for Halloween! Group Promo

More deets on all of these in their sections. 😊

Newsletter Swap 1 (UBL/Freebie)

30 Flash Horror Stories

A mysterious sign only one man can see… trick-or-treaters getting more trick than a treat… and ghosts that never rest.

These are just a few of the thirty flash fiction horror and Halloween stories awaiting you within the pages of this book.

Read these stories at your own risk!

(Or sign up to The SPARREW Newsletter – a free monthly newsletter for self-publishers, authors, readers, reviewers, editors and writers. Each issue arrives with the latest industry news, interviews with some of today’s most prolific industry leaders, and a free ebook.)

Mini Movie/TV Reviews 🎥

★ – Why did I go see this? Why?!

★★ – Showed promise but on execution, crashed

★★★ – Enjoyable, just don’t look under the hood too closely

★★★★ – A great film, totally worth seeing!

★★★★★ – 🤯 Too fabulous for words!

Expendables 4

Hubby doesn’t typically care about the plot and details if it is a heavy action flick, but he was more critical of this one than I was! 😱 As far as the action and special effects, you get your money’s worth. This one is VERY Stratham-centric, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing—though hubby was NOT pleased. What got me were some of the weird moments that made no sense whatsoever or were not in character. Like murdering a man who didn’t do anything worth being killed over just to fill a punchline on the script at the end. Or trying to teach people not to objectify women while showing it’s okay to beat someone half to death over words and innuendo. Almost like part of the script was written by AI or a four-year-old. Not to mention men thinking they can outdistance a nuclear explosion on a dinky boat.

Rating: ★★★ out of 5 Hubby’s Rating: Better for Matinee

The Creator

An interesting film with spectacular special effects, if not the best thought-out script. The acting was excellent. The film is emotionally moving and riveting, if not looked at closely. They had multiple details that made no sense. (More AI or 4-year-old input?) For example, having a giant, floating missile carrier that beams light down wherever it goes—while great for instilling fear, it is not optimal for carrying out covert ops missions! The division between the AIs on which got faces and which didn’t was never explained. Why would AIs housed in clunky bodies (and no genitalia) have a need to watch others of their kind doing strip teases? That has ZERO to do with intelligence and all to do with hormones and biological bodies, which they don’t have. Come on! This isn’t rocket science, guys!

Rating: ★★★.5 out of 5 Hubby’s Rating: Worth the Price of Admission

The Fall of the House of Usher

First things first – THIS IS NOT FOR KIDS! The warnings are real! That being said, we totally loved it. It’s dark, it’s poignant, a tiny bit preachy, and oh-so-good if you’re looking for a story of comeuppance and creepiness. You will recognize a ton of the actors, and they do fabulous work. Mark Hamil was a total hoot as Mr. Pym. For those who enjoy the works of Edgar Allen Poe, there is Poe lore and works woven throughout the entire 8-episode series. Even if you know the original story and know the ending, it’s like watching a train wreck, you’re too fascinated to dare look away.

Rating: ★★★★.25 out of 5 Hubby’s Rating: Worth the Price of Admission

One Piece

This is a live-action series rendition of the super popular manga and anime. They did a lovely job converting this to live action. All the jokes and weirdness of the original are there. They also do a great job on the emotional stories that underlie a ton of the adventures. I am totally looking forward to the next season. (I could never get hubby interested in the anime, but he loved the live-action!) The only thing I missed was the lack of Sanji’s eyebrow, though they included it in his intro episode pic. But they completely caught the flavor and craziness and that’s awesome!

Rating: ★★★★.5 out of 5 Hubby’s Rating: Worth the Price of Admission

StoryOrigin Swap 1 (Audio Freebie)

The Blood Mage

Will Tom embrace his new destiny, and can he make it out unscathed?

On his sixteenth birthday, Tom is bestowed with strange new magical powers. And when his sister is kidnapped, he discovers he was actually the intended target. Now, a group of villains with terrifying superhuman powers is after him because he might be the Last Blood Mage. Will Tom embrace his new destiny, and can he make it out unscathed?

The Blood Mage is the first book in a spinoff series of the Best-Selling Evers Series. While fans of Lola Evers’ adventures will be especially excited about this new story, new readers do not need to have read the Evers Series to enjoy this book.