Monday, December 17, 2012

Guns, Sandy Hook, and political parasites.


I am not going to discuss the Connecticut shooting. The day of the shooting, Facebook was filled with so many left-wing anti-gun @$$h0l3s trying to politicize dead children that I had to point out that the bodies were not even room temperature yet, and the political parasites were trying to stand on their still steaming bodies.



There was even someone on Facebook within six hours who stated that,  yes, he would have rather that the children has had all been set on fire, because at least then they wouldn't have been shot.  He said that. I cannot make this crap up.



Do you want to know what's worse than killing children?  People trying to make political points off of their dead bodies. These people make me violently ill.



And the worst thing?  There are already people making excuses for this murdering psycho -- "bright," or "autistic" or "Aspergers," and other exculpatory or complimentary words are being thrown at us to excuse mass murder, as though blaming the guns for the slaughter.  Again while at the same time defaming innocent civilians, painting 94 million American gun owners with the same brush of mass murder.



People make me ill. And I've made myself sick just writing about this. Notice, I haven't said one thing about the shooting itself, just the aftermath.



The people of ancient Carthage were a money-worshiping people. To sacrifice to their god, they would toss the biggest drain on their pocketbooks into a fire. They would throw in their children.



If you were someone who spent time online on Friday talking about monsters who own guns instead of passing along prayers, then look in the mirror. You already threw the baby into the fire for your political points. Enjoy.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Darth Donald and Padawan Mickey -- Disney eats Star Wars





It's a bit late to comment on Disney buying Star Wars from George Lucas, but there have been so many rumors and lies around the project, it's hard to know where to begin.



Item 1: Disney owns Star Wars, Lucas will be the creative consultant on Episodes 7, 8, and 9.  The Schwartz will be with Disney (Mel Brooks joke, ignore me).  Episode 7 is slated for 2015, putting it up against the next Avengers film, supposedly, a Justice League Film, so that'll be fun.



On the one hand, Disney seems to know what they're doing when it comes to franchises -- they acquired Marvel without destroying the Avengers Storyline -- no matter what the NYTimes whined about the Avengers film -- and have yet to ruin the marvel movies. So, we'll see.



Item 2: The writer for Toy Story 3 will be penning the script, and we don't seem to have a lock on the director yet.



This actually annoys me a bit.  Star Wars has enough writers with the books to write a whole television series -- were Michael J. Stackpole and Timothy Zahn too busy?  In fact, forget stackpole, I'll take Zahn.  No, I don't need to have The Heir to the Empire series Zahn wrote twenty years ago as episodes 7-9; for one thing, everyone is too bloody old. Unless, of course, you're going to recast everybody, in which case, we can have a party ...



Nathan Fillion as Han Solo anyone? Morena Baccarain as Princess Leia? Sean Maher as Luke Skywalker? Adam Baldwin as Darth Vader?



Oh, did I not mention that?



Item 3: THEY'RE BRINGING BACK DARTH VADER......



Ahem....



I'm really, deeply, seriously hoping this is a joke. A bad joke. Told by Fozzy of the Muppets.  Where's the "Wokka Wokka"?



Item 2 (Reprise) -- if you want to talk about writers, were Zahn or Stackpole asked? Were the writers of the Bioware videogames (who have made the best Star Wars stories outside of Zahn for the last 15 years) even considered? Or did they have the writer in mind when they started negotiations to buy the series?



Conclusion: I'm wary, but hopeful. Lucas is being shoved out of his own company. Creative consultants are what happened to Joe Quesada when he was replaced.



Disney may not screw up Star Wars even more than it already is. Here's hoping.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Sex, politics and comic books. Oy!


So, twas the week after the election, and all through the nation, you had 19-petitions to secede, from places as diverse as Texas to New York, a wave of people want to get the heck away from Barack Obama.



What does that have to do with this blog? Nothing. Nothing at all.  Except for the fact that the top ten blog posts of all time  for A Pius Man has to do with either sex, politics, or comic books.  So, somehow, I have to link up Obama's appearance in Spider Man with the latest sex scandal, and I will have the ultimate blog post -- especially if I have a musical interleud by Two Steps From Hell.



If one is to believe social media, there is no allowing for a middle of the road approach aht-wing friends are somewhat sane-ish (no one I know is completely sane), but some of the left-wingers were so loud for so long with some pretty heavy-duty insults, I had to defriend some of them, and blockatleast one altogether from Facebook.  There was a "worship Obama and watch only MSNBC" or "you're an evil, right-wing homophobic 1%-er with no human decency, and that goes double if you're Catholic."  And if you're Catholic, you're old-fashioned and stupid.



And after Obama won, it got worse.



And, of course, whenever someone was called out on it -- such as "I hold the belief you're pissed off about, you think I'm evil?" -- the reply of everyone is a standard, "Oh, I don't mean you!"  But after a while, when they make no distinctions between "you" the "friend" and all of those people who are evil for even holding an opinion contrary to their own .... yes, they do mean you. I mean, hell, when they say that you're a threat to humanity, you hate people (women, puppies and Christmas), and you start to get the impression that if a church filled with Catholics were blown up, they would celebrate, and maybe shed a tear or two when they found out you were in it.



After Kathey Giffords was shot by deeply psychotic Jared Loughner, we were all told that rhetoric kills, and we all have to be civil.  Where did that go?



If you're now wondering about my politics, I covered them here, so you can save your desparaging remarks.  Frankly, I'm on the side of civility, and right now, the loud, utterly psychotic ranting is coming from the left side, and I see no one on the left throwing a net over their more insane members. Read through the article on my politics and when I'm no longer being labeled as evil for even having opinions on these topics, then we can talk.



Now, if the current atmosphere keeps up, I'm sure I can get more blog viewers by tacking hard to one political end or the other. I'd rather not, because I like holding onto what sanity I have with both hands, and maybe my teeth.



I'm also sure I can get more readers by introducing sex as a topic more often... but, again, I'd rather not.



And I stopped reading comic books a while ago.



If I do not hear back from Chesterton Press by the end of the year, I will give self-publishing a try on A Pius Man.  It'll take me a while though. So, we'll see what goes on here. And, with any luck, it'll work.   But I'd much rather not. Really, I'd rather not.



I'm out. And I'll talk to you all later. Hopefully, I'll have a topic next time, as opposed to these vague meandering posts that barely have a point.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Getting back to work


So, this blog is called A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller.  But there's a graphic for a novel called It Was Only On Stun! by a Declan Finn when the blog is by a John K. For those of you keeping track, you know that I gave up on traditional publishing and went my own route, experimenting with a lesser novel that was a murder mystery at a science fiction convention.

So, what's happening with A Pius Man?

First, A Pius Man should be coming out next.  It will either come out in January, or else we'll be working on getting it out next year.

Who's we?  Well, that's a funny story.

When I published It Was Only On Stun!, I interviewed as many places as possible. I wrote as many guest blogs as I was allowed.  I spun my wheels until the tires popped.  I've sold about 60 copies, more or less.

However, it was not all for naught. You see, what's happened is that my guest blog on Catholic humor caught someone's attention.  It was around the same time I kept tagging John Ringo on Facebook and didn't realize I was posting on his wall at the same time.  However, a friend/fan of Ringo saw the words "Catholic humor" and decided to swing by. He's a freelance editor with Chesterton Press.

If you check, you'll realize that Chesterton Press is a Catholic press.  They like Catholic books.  And A Pius Man can qualify, for the most part.  ously, how many Catholic presses are going to read a book where there are RPGs flying all over the place and priests who look like they could be assassins?

One will be more than enough for me.

So, while I'm waiting on that for happen, I'm considering my options. I've recenty gotten a full time job -- well, it's not full time as I'm writing this, but may be as the blog is published.  I'm working as a writer at NYU-Polytech in Brooklyn.  It's a bit of a hike, but the hard part is getting to the trains  After that, I get an hour to read ... usually, if I can even lift my arm in a train crowded in by sardines in a city that just suffered from a major hurricane. 



So, don't worry, I haven't completely lost my mind, blog posts to the contrary.  I just had to rid myself of some toxic people in my life as a bit of a cleanser. Think of it as green tea for the soul. 



I'm just glad the elections are over. Those things were annoying as hell.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Have some Iron (Man 3) in your diet


The debate annoyed me last night, no politics today.



A friend of mine labeled me a clear and present danger to the universe just for holding some beliefs I don't even enforce on anyone. But my thoughts themselves are evil, apparently. I'll talk to him after election, and hope everyone calms down.



So, have you seen the new trailer for Iron Man three?



Enjoy






Monday, September 24, 2012

DragonCon Report #6: an hour with Peter David


Just when you thought that this thing would never get posted (and, at several points, I didn't think it would be), it goes up.



Peter David is at the end of every Star Trek track at the end of every year.  He's the last hour on the last day of the convention. The way he told the story one year, someone in charge of scheduling said "Peter David? He's the last person I'd want to see," and random minion wrote down "Peter ... David ... last .... person."



And so a tradition was born.



Anyway this is an hour video.  He starts by killing time with some DragonCon memories, discusses projects he has with Will Smith (a movie called After Earth), his problems with the publishing industry (which suddenly doesn't make me feel so bad), and more.