DH:LoF - Tales of Promethea

It's here! DH:LoF - Tales of Promethea was released yesterday and is available on DriveThru. Within the first 24 hours, I'm rather chuffed to say that it's sitting nicely in the No.6 spot of their fiction list.  Smashing!

This is what Cubicle 7 say about it.

Trailers - A Necessary Evil?

I don't normally rant here, but this is something that has been increasingly annoying me for quite a while now...

One of the highlights of going to the cinema is watching a selection of films coming soon to tempt us back into those hallowed halls of escapist fantasies.

However, what once used to be tempting teasers, snippets of the joys yet to come, have recently become little more than bullet points of every main scene of the entire film.

The first time this was brought to my attention, was several years ago while watching a film on TV, ‘Associate’, starring Whoopie Goldberg. As the plot progressed, the feeling that I’d seen it before increased, right down to the twist in the plot where the main female character eventually had to pose as a white male in order to convince the Wall Street Powers-That-Be to accept her financial genius, even though she was a mere female.

Although I’d never seen the film before, it was with disappointment that the story rolled to its somehow familiar conclusion.

The weird sense of déjà vu was explained by the fact that the entire film had been summarised in a cinematic trailer I had seen previously.

This left an unpleasant realisation that not only had I wasted an entire 90 minutes to see what could be considered a mere lengthened version of the trailer, but that at no point had the story kept me wondering what would happen. How could it when I had already seen the abridge version? 

Yes, the point of trailers is to pack all the good bits of a film in a nice neat package in order to make people want to pay their money to see it in it’s entirely, however, is it getting to the point when the trailers give most of the main plot away before the film has even opened?

The desperation to show all the ‘best bits’ of a given film before release is overshadowing the enjoyment of watching the plot unfold when the feature does eventually hit the big screens.

If most of the main shocks, plot twists or unexpected turns, not to mention the majority of the story, have already been revealed during a ten minute trailer, the urge to spend time and money on what can merely be regarded as ‘extra padding’, sadly fails to motivate.

Perhaps it is a sad reflection of diminishing concentration spans, or the ‘Need-to-Know-NOW’ culture that we must be shown a speeded up version to convince us how good the film is going to be.

Perhaps the film companies think potential audiences need to know what’s going to happen before they can be enticed to go and see a film, rather than take a chance on a film they know only a taste of. Perhaps, they are right.

Whatever the reasons, I find myself fast forwarding DVD trailers and deliberately avoiding cinematic attractions for the simple reason that I prefer not to know what’s going to happen in advance.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must flip to the end of the book I’m currently reading, because I just can’t be bothered going through the whole thing to find out how it ends… 

Rather Spiffing News

As the release date of  'Dark Harvest: Tales of Promethea' grows ever tantalisingly and tingly closer, some rather exciting news has just been revealed...

If you're of a 'certain' age group, and unashamedly geeky, (not me at all, obviously *cough*) it may be of interest that Ian Livingstone (remember those wonderful Fighting Fantasy books?) has only gone and written the bloomin' introduction!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just going to have a nice cuppa and indulge in a considerable amount of Squeeeeing.

Anthologies Abound

One of my New Year’s Resolutions back in January, was to update my blog more often. Well, actually it wasn’t, I just made that up to sound less lazy than I am.

I got a bit of a shock the other day to discover September had crept up on me rather suddenly. I’m convinced this is really just somewhere around mid-March and the Gods of Time are just playing an hilarious prank on me.

So, what have I been doing all these non-existent months then, I hear you cry. *Ignores the tumbleweed bouncing past*

I have had the pleasant opportunity of doing a little contribution for the first supplement of the Dark Hark Harvest RPG, Dark Harvest:Resistance, published by Cubicle 7. As the core book has already proved, Dark Harvest is a credit to its creator Iain Lowson.

Having already won the Griffie award for Best Roleplaying Product, Dark Harvest continues to grow in popularity with several exciting upcoming projects on the horizon. Among this, is an Anthology of short fiction, all centred around the terrifying setting of Victor Frankenstein’s Promethea. I’m hugely excited to say that I’ve written one of the stories to be included, and am truly flattered to be included among a group of high calibre writers that have also contributed to this project.

At the moment, I’m working on an anthology of short stories with a vaguely dark theme. More details to come regarding this, however I can reveal the titles of several of the featuring stories; they include, ‘Terms & Conditions’, ‘What Laura Wants’, ‘Time of the Month’, and the title story, ‘The Demon in the Laundry Basket’. More updates soon!

The Griffies 2012

I am completely chuffed beyond all that is chuffworthy to say that Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein picked up the Griffie for best RPG in Edinburgh this weekend! Huzzah! Well deserved and hopefully the first of many!

March?

Wait. Where has January gone. And February, not to mention March? I want them back, you hear?! And that hour that was ungraciously stolen from me last weekend too. Just wrap them up in a nondescript brown paper bag, leave them on the doorstep and no more will be said on the matter.

So, what have I been doing these last few months then? Good question and if you know the answer, please tell me now. Thanks.

I vaguely remember doing a treatment, a scripty type thingy and a very fun DH:LoF meeting concerning the new Resistance supplement which will be available soon, way back at the beginning of January. And doing some mysterious bloggy type posts for *another blog*! Was also rather chufty about getting through to the 2nd round of the Red Planet Prize, which was delightfully unexpected. So, busy, yes. But still plenty time to be found for lazing in some unseasonally pleasant weather. (Must make the best of it, while it lasts!)

The Battlefield.
by: Dozeymagz