July Ends; the Madness Continues

It's been an exhausting 58% of a year so far. Exhausting, but productive. I wrapped up the first draft of the sixth book in the Citadel of the Last Gathering a few days ago - SIXTH. That's three novels this year alone: a personal best.

Don't expect much more between now and the end of December, because I've still got to get the third book prepped for release this fall (we're targeting October), and I want to start going over books four through six. Plus we've got Mainlining Christmas to think about, and we're considering moving to a bigger place.

Busy, busy, busy.

What else is up? Well, speaking of Mainlining Christmas and quotes from Frosty specials, we just finished up a month of Christmas in July over at the holiday-themed blog. Check it out if you haven't been following along.

Since my last update, I saw Star Trek Beyond, a movie I far underestimated from its trailer. This did a fantastic job blending the new films with the series they're based on - it was an absolute joy to watch. I go into more depth over at The Middle Room, if you're interested.

Beyond that, I've been making the most of the summer toy-collecting season, when clearance is at its best and new toys are coming out constantly. Among my favorite acquisitions is this trio of Barbie figures paying homage to Classic Trek.

These are showing up at Toys R Us, if you're interested, at $35/each. That's not cheap, but it's a fraction of what you'll pay for high-end figures.

Religious Artifacts

If you live in Seattle and have the time, I highly recommend you swing by the EMP Museum before their Star Trek special exhibit closes. The collection is drawn from every iteration of Trek - every series is represented, as are most of the movies. It's mesmerizing. If the Vatican threw open the doors to their archives, I'm guessing this is what it would feel like.

On top of that, there's a special exhibit on "Wearable Art" taken from a New Zealand-based competition. If that sounds dull to you, you're likely making the same mistake I made and are forgetting that WETA is based in New Zealand.

Awesome.

Amazing.

Bad ass.

It feels like you're walking through an exhibit drawn from the greatest nightmares. There's an eight minute video presentation there that's worth every second: sort of a carnival of these costumes in motion.

Let's see... what's else is going on? I was quite happy with the new Ghostbusters movie. We can quibble over details, but this has the potential to mean as much to the next generation of geeks as the original meant to mine. Hell, McKinnon's character swipes the award for all-time best Ghostbuster right out of Murray's hands.

As always, there's a full review up on The Middle Room if you want the long version.

Also, just a reminder but my wife and I are running a special July edition of the holidays over at Mainlining Christmas. We took the Christ out of Christmas and left him on an abandoned island in July. Honestly, I think he's probably happier there anyway. Click the link to learn more about Christmas specials set in the summer than you probably ever wanted.

I think that's about it for news. I'll check in again when I've got more to say.

July's Fine and All, but MERRY CHRISTMAS

I've got a lot to cover in this update, but I'll try to keep it fast.

First, we're still on track to have A Unique Sickness of Spirit (book 3 in The Citadel of the Last Gathering) out this fall. We're still putting some finishing touches on it, but it's looking good.

In other news, IT'S CHRISTMAS! Well, it's Christmas in July, or at least it is over at our holiday-themed blog. Lindsay and I are planning to post once a day in July. We'll be reviewing movies, episodes, and other media fixated on this bizarre pseudo-holiday.

To celebrate, we're also going to be giving away digital copies of my novels! Between Friday, July 8 and Sunday, July 10, go to Amazon to grab your free copy of each of the following:

• A Count of Five (The Citadel of the Last Gathering, Book 1)
• Tide of Ice (The Citadel of the Last Gathering, Book 2)
• For Love of Children
• Facsimile
• Tending the Fire

What else? Since I last updated, I've watched and reviewed X-Men: Apocalypse (flawed but under-rated), Finding Dory (basically flawless and rated about right), and Warcraft (just weird as hell). I also finally got around to last year's Fantastic Four in my series reviewing the lowest rated and least-loved superhero movies of all time. I thought the first half was intriguing, but it quickly fell apart.

In addition, I wrote up a brief article looking at what's becoming an odd trend in movies: while most of the industry's stalling, Disney has been putting out an almost shocking rate of critically acclaimed, financially successful films. You can read that here.

Lastly, I wrote up a toy review at my old site, The Clearance Bin. I rarely post there these days, but I couldn't help it: NECA's 8 inch Weird Al figure just demanded a write-up. The review might not conform to the norm, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to put together.