Merry Christmas!!

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season. Are you psyched for tonight's Doctor Who Christmas Special? I sure am.

I just saw the latest Hobbit film, and I have to say, despite the fact that I still think three movies for that book is just too much and the high frame rate continues to be a bit distracting, I really enjoyed it. I know that others disagree, and I admit, I did laugh when (spoiler alert?) Bilbo managed to fell a few orcs ("bred for war!") with simple stone tosses, but whatever. Heck, maybe Bilbo should try out for a spot in the Mariners' rotation - then we could trade Roenis Elias for a halfway decent bat.

Book Two Status Update: I am now halfway through the first draft of what I feel is finally the actual version of the book, and I must say, I am pretty stoked. It's shaping up to be a really fun and exciting story, and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Anyway, gotta run. Have a great day everyone!

Lists of Favorites

One thing that Joel and I like to discuss from time to time is our "Lists of Favorites" - i.e., a list of books, movies, video games, albums, etc. in the same series or from the same band, in order of preference from most favorite to least. Today, we'd like to share some of those lists with you.

Star Wars Films
Joel's list:
1. Episode IV
2. Episode VI
3. Episode V
4. Episode III
5. Episode I
6. Episode II

My list:
1. Episode V
2. Episode IV
3. Episode III
4. Episode VI
5. Episode II
6. Episode I

Harry Potter Novels
Joel's list:
1. Order of the Phoenix
2. Half-Blood Prince
3. Sorceror's Stone
4. Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Deathly Hallows
6. Chamber of Secrets
7. Goblet of Fire

My list:
1. Deathly Hallows
2. Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Half-Blood Prince
4. Order of the Phoenix
5. Sorceror's Stone
6. Chamber of Secrets
7. Goblet of Fire

Legend of Zelda Games (Top 5)
Joel's list:
1. Ocarina of Time
2. Majora's Mask
3. Twilight Princess
4. Wind Waker
5. Skyward Sword

My list:
1. Twilight Princess
2. Skyward Sword
3. Wind Waker
4. Ocarina of Time
5. Majora's Mask

Iron Maiden Albums (Top 7)
Joel's list:
1. Somewhere In Time
2. Seventh Son
3. Piece of Mind
4. Powerslave
5. Number of the Beast
6. Iron Maiden
7. Killers

My list:
1. Number of the Beast
2. Piece of Mind
3. Powerslave
4. Killers
5. Somewhere In Time
6. Seventh Son
7. Iron Maiden

Spectraland Saga Novels
Joel: Wait, what?

Random Thought Thursday

The new Star Wars trailer - epic!! Except, I don't care much for the title. Really, J.J., "The Force Awakens"? I'm not sure if you realize this, but The Force was already "Unleashed" a few years ago - twice - and now, it's going to "Awaken"? I mean, as I've said before, I'm a really forgiving fan, but c'mon...there are sooo many other options. Whatever, I guess - I suppose you know that I'm going to pay money to see your movie (probably several times) anyway.

The new Legend of Zelda is on its way, based on this new teaser video. Aaaaaggggh I can't wait!!11! Will you guys hurry up already? My Wii U is starting to gather some serious dust since I got my cats and don't really feel like playing Hyrule Warriors any more. Shooting arrows in slow motion as I'm jumping off of Epona? YES PLEASE. And by the way, nobody cares about the new Star Fox. Okay, that's not totally true, but really, I just want you guys to focus here. ZELDA

This past Sunday I attended the launch party for "Bash and Lucy Fetch Jealousy," the second book in the Bash and Lucy series by my good friend and P.R. person extraordinaire Lisa Cohn and her son, Michael. It was a lot of fun and the books are terrific - do yourself a favor and check 'em out.

Christmas is coming up quick, and you know what that means - the Doctor Who Christmas Special. I'm thinking that it's gonna be really good, and that it'll mark the end of Clara Oswald (not that the two things are related - I like Clara). In retrospect - and after multiple re-watchings - Season 8 has been nothing short of awesome (yes, even the first episode, which I now like despite what I still feel are its pretty obvious shortcomings.)

Nick Frost as Father Christmas...love it. So very cheeky.

Boots and Mittens

As if there aren't enough cat-related things on the Internet already, today I'd like to introduce the two newest members of my family: Boots and Mittens.

Kinda hard to tell where one ends and the other begins

Brother (Boots) and sister (Mittens) from the same litter, they were adopted from Second Chance Companions, a very cool pet adoption organization located in my area. They were named by the girl who originally found them, and we decided to keep their names instead of changing them to something like, oh, Destiny and Dreamer (the names of Joel and Felicity's slimebacks from Book One, in case you haven't read it yet.)

Animals play a big role in The Spectraland Saga. When I first started working on Book One, I asked my kids what they wanted to see included in it. My son said "powers," meaning magic spells or superhero-type abilities, and my daughter said "cute animals." So, that's where the idea for Sammy the silvertail came from. And he's not just a token character - he ends up playing a pretty big role in the story, and I have even bigger things planned for him in the books to come.

The inspiration for the story about Nibbles the hamster in Chapter 16 came from a actual experience with one of our previous pets, Scampers the gerbil. Shortly after we got Scampers (and his brother, Midnight), he suddenly became very ill, late at night. It seemed like he wasn't going to make it. Instead of waiting until the next day (by which time it was probably going to be too late), we searched through emergency pet hospitals in the area until we found a 24-hour clinic that treated any kind of animal, including gerbils. We took him in, he got treatment and medicine, and he was eventually nursed back to health. He ended up living a long (for a gerbil, anyway) and comfortable life.

Scampers

Anyway, it's very possible that you will see some new animal characters inspired by Boots and Mittens in an upcoming entry in the Saga. So stay tuned!