Buddy's Writing Show #10 - Interview With Vernon Baker!

I was very happy to speak here with writer Vernon Baker, author of The Slow Boat To Purgatory and The Arimathean, the first two novels in The Slow Boat To Purgatory series. I loved those books and it was great to talk with Vernon about them. You should check them out yourself on Vernon's page on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/mt4a739. Also, Vernon's got a great writer's page on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/m6ozs3f. Not a Facebook person? Then check out his official site:http://vernonjbaker.com/.

Buddy's Writing Show #9.5: My Review Of WRITE. PUBLISH. REPEAT. by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant with David W. Wright

Where I talk about WRITE. PUBLISH. REPEAT. - THE NO-LUCK REQUIRED GUIDE TO SELF PUBLISHING SUCCESS by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant, with David W. Wright. The book is AWESOME and it's a must-have for aspiring (and experienced) writers. You can find the book on Amazon.com by clicking this :http://tinyurl.com/m2orqvg. Also, be sure to check out their weekly show, THE SELF PUBLISHING PODCAST, by going tohttp://www.selfpublishingpodcast.com or by going to Johnny B. Truant's page on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/user/selfpubl.

Buddy's Writing Show #9 - The Carl Sinclair Interview: Where cool hair and cool accents collide!

Buddy's Writing Show #9 - Carl Sinclair Interview! Aside from being super cool, Carl is a great writer. Check out his book Pandora's Gate for FREE right here: http://tinyurl.com/kmrevke. Also, for more awesomeness, check out Carl's website:http://www.carlsinclairauthor.com. And, last but not least, go and watch Carl and other great writers on The Self Publishing Roundtable: http://www.selfpublishingroundtable.com. 

Buddy's Writing Show #8 - The Scott Richards Interview!

My interview with Scott Richards, author of Before The Shroud, Landon's Prison and Spiritually Deficient. Check Scott and his books out at his cool website:http://www.theshroudbetween.com/. 

Buddy's Writing Show #7 - Eric Guindon Interview!

My interview with Eric Guindon, author of the A WIZARD'S LIFE series, THE PROPHECIES TRIPTYCH series and other great stories. Check out Eric's great books on his page on Amazon:http://tinyurl.com/kgfvfcn. For Eric's very cool website, with his blog and info on his books, go to: http://chimericwhimsey.com/. Also, for The Siege Perilous podcast that he hosts, check this out: http://www.siegeperilousreviews.com/. 

Buddy's Writing Show #6 - Interview With Writer Olivia Hardin

In this episode, I interview romance author Olivia Hardin - a very talented writer! Check out her great books on her page on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/k8metta. She's also got her own VERY cool site: http://olivia-hardin.com/. One thing that came up a couple of times in the interview was a project Olivia's involved in with several other romance writers called Romantic Edge Books. Check them out too: http://romanticedgebooks.com/. 

I Was Interviewed For Something Other Than Possible Crimes Committed By Me!

Author Steve Yeager recently interviewed me for his website, where he's posted many great interviews with writers. Considering that my first book isn't even published yet, I'm very grateful for him to have interviewed me.

It was a lot of fun to do. Thank you, Steve!

The interview can be found here.  :-)

Buddy's Writing Show #5: Interview With Writer Steve R. Yeager

Steve Yeager is a great writer and a very nice guy. We talk here about his novel,The Raptor Apocalypse, and his short story collection, Short Tales (Volume One.) We talk about other stuff too, including how nice we both are. Also, there's some talk about one of us starting up our own religion.

For Steve's very good books, click on this link RIGHT HERE! 

For Steve's super-groovy (my words, not his) website, click on this!

Buddy's Writing Show #4: Getting To Know Writer Xavier Granville - Plus, We Talk About THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman.

Wow. Could the title of this posting BE any longer??? (Asked in my best Chandler Bing voice.)

The long title says it all, I suppose. Had a fun time interviewing Xavier, learning about his writing, talking Neil Gaiman and discussing NaNoWriMo.

Check out Xavier's cool story, Port Of Call, right here! P.S. - It's currently FREE!

Also, check out Xavier's cool website right here! P.S. - It's also FREE!

And, because Neil Gaiman might need my help in selling copies of his book (well, nah, probably not) check out THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman. Great book!

Buddy's Writing Show #3 - My Interview With Writer Melissa Lummis

My interview with Melissa Lummis, author of The Love And Light series. Along with being a writer I enjoy reading, I'm also very happy to call Melissa a good friend. As seen here (and everywhere else, for that matter) Melissa is quite AWESOME!

Check out Melissa's great books right here.

Also, check out Melissa's great website here.

Buddy's Writing Show #2: My Review Of WRITER DAD By Sean Platt & Me Talking About NaNoWriMo

The main focus of my writing show will be interviews with writers about their books, but I'll occasionally do some reviews on books and ramble about other writerly and bookly things. For this page you're currently reading, as just seen, I'll occasionally create my own very special new words!

As for Sean Platt, he's a great writer and you should check out some (no, make it all!) of his books. Here are some groovy links for you:

Sean's Page On Amazon.com

Collective Inkwell: Sean's works with writer David W. Wright

Realm & Sands: Sean's works with writer Johnny B. Truant

The Self Publishing Podcast: The weekly writing show that Sean, Dave and Johnny do together. A lot of good info and a lot of laughs!

The Debut Episode of BUDDY'S WRITING SHOW, Crissy Moss and SPRT!

So, I've been thinking for awhile about doing a show on YouTube where I do interviews with writers, talk about writing, do book reviews, and so on.

Well, I did my first show yesterday and it was a LOT of fun for me. I interviewed writer Crissy Moss and she was a fantastic first guest. Thank you again, Crissy!

I'll be doing at least one interview per week. There really won't be a set schedule for these (at least for now) but I'll try to give you some advance notice before I do them in case you want to watch them live.

One thing I neglected to do during the show was mention Crissy's website, which you can find right here. Aside from info about where to purchase Crissy's books, you'll also find great postings there from her. Check it out!

Some of you may be looking at the "SPRT" word at the top of this posting and be thinking, "Buddy just did a typo!" Well, there probably are some typos in this posting, but that's not one of them. SPRT stands for SELF PUBLISHING ROUND TABLE, which is a weekly show that Crissy co-hosts with five other writers.

I watch it every week. It's full of great info and it's usually hilarious. I talked about it with Crissy in our interview, but here's a little more info:

It broadcasts LIVE every Thursday night at 10 PM EST. Be sure to check it out. Here's where to watch!

NEXT UP FOR BUDDY'S WRITING SHOW: Sometime during the next couple of days, I'll be doing a book review there. The book I'm reviewing is an awesome one!  :-)

LEGAL NOTIFICATION: The Name Of This Blog Has Changed

I was speaking with my friends Carl and Dave last night and I mentioned that my old blog from many years ago was called BUDDY GOTT'S BLOG-O-RAMA.

That name gave them both a good laugh. Whether they were laughing with me or laughing at me is still a question, I suppose, but it's a question that I'm faced with regarding most people on most days. I'm used to it and for my own sanity, I choose to believe people are laughing WITH me.

Anyway, I decided to switch this place from BUDDY GOTT'S BLOG PLACE to BUDDY GOTT'S BLOG-O-RAMA.

The main reason for this is that, damn it, there just aren't enough blogs in the world that have O-RAMA as part of their title. That needed to change and damn it, I'm just the person to do it!

So, welcome to The Blog-O-Rama!

Check back soon for more nonsense. I'm full of it!

The Reincarnation Of Ward Johnson

This is a very short story I just wrote as part of a flash fiction challenge on my friend Carl Sinclair's site. I enjoyed writing this one.

THE REINCARNATION OF WARD JOHNSON

His dreams of being stabbed were happening more frequently. He used to get them a few times a year, but now he was getting them almost every night. The dreams were always the same. He’d walk into a darkly lit bedroom and suddenly get tackled from behind. He struggled on the floor with his attacker, but he never saw the man’s face. The only thing he saw clearly was the knife in the man’s hand – right before it entered his stomach. Then everything went pitch black for a few seconds before he woke up in a panic.

Other than those horrible dreams, he led a pretty happy life. He was young and healthy and did just about everything he wanted to do. Plus, he had a fantastic roommate named Carl, who despite being an old man and different from him in just about every way, was undoubtedly his best friend. They got along great.

Until the day he remembered everything.

He had walked into Carl’s bedroom and saw him lying asleep in his bed. When he looked at Carl’s face, his mind suddenly filled with visions from the dream he’d been having over and over again. Only this time, when he saw the knife in the man’s hand, he looked up and saw his face. It was Carl.

Then it all came back to him. He and Carl had been best friends and business partners for many years until one day when he discovered that Carl had been embezzling money from their company. He told Carl he’d be going to the police the next day to turn him in. It was that night when Carl showed up at his home and attacked and murdered him.

In that previous life, his name had been Ward Johnson. As Ward, he’d never believed in reincarnation. He would have thought someone was crazy if they told him he’d die and one day be reincarnated. He’d think they were even crazier if they said he’d be reincarnated as a pit bull terrier.

But there he was. Reincarnated as the pet dog of the man who had killed him.

He jumped up on the bed and then looked down on Carl’s neck. His revenge would taste very sweet. 

I'm Disturbed By The Pina Colada Song

Something has been troubling me lately about "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes. First, though, I'd like to state that yes, I know the "n" in "Pina" is supposed to have one of those little squiggly things above it, but I don't know how to do that. Sorry.

Anyway...in the song, the singer complains about how things are bad with him and his lady and they've fallen into the same old, dull routines. This inspires him to look in the personal ads of a newspaper for someone else. He sees an ad from a woman who's looking for a guy who's into pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, etc.

He writes a reply saying, "Yes, I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain" and they decide to meet at a bar. When he gets there, he sees the woman and discovers that it's his wife. She says, "Oh, it's you," in a tone that sounds like, "Aw, shucks, what do you know? You're not a stranger. You're my little Pooh Bear!"

Then they both laugh about the whole thing.

So, seriously....they just laugh about the situation? I mean, c'mon! She finds out that her husband responded to a personal ad and was going to cheat on her and it doesn't upset her? And then he's not mad that his wife placed a personal ad and was going to cheat on him with some total stranger who could be a raging, alcoholic madman who likes to stand in the rain?

Yeah, they were probably both laughing because each of them knew they were busted and they were just trying to play if off, but I can't believe they weren't at least a little pissed off at each other!

Despite the fun tone of the song, maybe the two characters in it are horrible sinners who will one day be drinking pina coladas with Satan in the burning pit fires of Hell.

Then again, maybe since they didn't technically cheat on each other, they won't go to Hell. Plus, God would probably cut Rupert Holmes some slack since his parents named him "Rupert." You've got to feel sorry for someone with that name.

Also, there's a tiny, minuscule chance that I've over-thought this whole thing.

Anyway...end of rant. Here's the song. It's a great one. Enjoy!

The Burglar's Rough Night

The burglar squatted down in front of the door and felt something sharp dig into his right thigh. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a No. 2 pencil he now regretted sharpening earlier. The burglar wondered if he might get lead poisoning from what just happened. Then he remembered once reading on Wikipedia that you could only get lead poisoning from odd-numbered pencils, so he stopped worrying.

He tossed the pencil aside and got to work. It was an old lock, so a paperclip would do the job. At least he hoped so, since he didn’t have any of his normal burglary tools with him. He took a paperclip from his pocket, twisted it around, and into the keyhole it went.

He’d broken into dozens of homes this way, so this should have been easy. It wasn’t. The lock wouldn’t budge. He wondered if he was losing his touch or if something else was wrong. Maybe he did have lead poisoning and it was already screwing with his system. There was a slim chance that Wikipedia had been wrong.

The hell with it, he thought. There had to be another way in. He walked through the front yard and looked at the windows on the second floor and saw that one of them was partially open. Perfect.

The burglar looked around for something to use to get him up to the window. There was nothing, so he went to the yard of the house next door. He found a small ladder there and carried it back.

He put it in place and climbed up. Just as he got to the top, he heard footsteps from the sidewalk in front of the house.

“Hey, look up there!” A boy’s voice said. The burglar looked down and saw a teenage boy and a middle-aged woman looking up at him.

“Bill Kucharski,” the woman said. “Did you lock yourself out of your house again?”

The burglar looked down at them. “Yeah, I lost my keys. Sorry for taking your ladder without asking, Beth. Was afraid you’d be asleep. I’ll bring it back first thing in the morning.”

They said goodbye and he climbed into his house and got into bed. As he laid his head on his pillow, he wondered how he could easily break into other homes but suck so badly at breaking into his own. 

**************************************************************************

The above story was written in response to a flash fiction writing challenge from writer Wade Finnegan on his website yesterday. Wade's parameters for the challenge were: Somewhere in the story you must use the words pencil, paperclip, and pillow. Also, a character must say, “Look up there.” You have a maximum of 400 words to work with. 

I had a fun time with it. To check out Wade Finnegan's cool site and his story for this challenge, go here. You'll also find another cool story there by writer Carl Sinclair. 

Check them out! 

Why MAN OF STEEL Is A Good Movie And Why I Hated It A Lot

WARNING: SPOILERS AND CURSING COMING AFTER THE 'WHY IT'S A GOOD MOVIE' PART.

So, here's the "why it's a good movie" part. No cursing from me here. Children and the easily-offended can read this with no fears.

First of all, MAN OF STEEL is a good movie. Even though I hated it, I can't in any way say that it was a bad movie. The director did a great job visually. The scenery (especially the stuff on Krypton) and the special effects are pretty awesome.

As far as the cast goes, I've got nothing to complain about there either. I especially liked Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as the Kents. Michael Shannon, even though he was playing a MUCH different General Zod than the one I know and love from SUPERMAN 2, was very good in his role.

Amy Adams was fine as Lois Lane, though Lois was a little boring compared to earlier versions I've seen of her. I blame that more on the writers (I'll get back to those clowns soon) than on Amy Adams.

As for Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman...he was pretty great. He did a fine acting job and he definitely looks the part. Also, I admit to feeling sort of a kinship with him. In the scenes when he wasn't wearing a shirt, I felt as if I was looking at an exact body double of myself. It was somewhat eerie how similarly he and I are built.

So, yeah...beautifully filmed and a great cast. Good movie.

So, why did I hate it?

(HERE COME THOSE SPOILERS AND CURSES THAT I WARNED YOU ABOUT!)

I'll tell you why I hated it. Because the the writers, producers, and director didn't seem to give one single, solitary shit about the history of Superman. They changed so many things around that there were a couple times that I almost walked out of the theater. I sat there getting madder and madder. The only reason that I stayed was because I bought a big tub of popcorn and wanted to finish eating it.

I'll focus on just a few (of the many) changes that I hated. First of all, it was ridiculous that Lois Lane knew almost from the beginning about Clark's super powers. Excuse me, but when the hell has that ever happened before? A huge, huge (did I mention huge?) part of the appeal of the Lois and Clark story has always been the mystery of her not knowing who he really is. Yes, I know that in some stories they've eventually gotten married and she knew his identity then, but it always happened long after they met. Here, she knows who he is and what he can do before he even puts on his costume for the first time.

So, Strike One there for me.

Now, let's talk about Jonathan Kent, Clark's adoptive father on Earth. First of all, let me make it very clear that Kevin Costner was awesome in the part. My beef here is in how the movie makers killed off his character. Jonathan Kent has always died of a heart attack in all the earlier versions of the Superman story. He never died from a tornado before.

Yes, I know what the story makers were trying to do with his character and with the story. Jonathan had told Clark earlier that he may sometimes need to sacrifice lives in order to protect his secret so he could use his powers later for the good of the world. So, when the tornado came and there were a bunch of people around watching the whole thing, Jonathan doesn't want Clark to save him, so Clark doesn't and he lets him die.

Yeah, fuck that. If you have a chance to save Kevin Costner from a tornado, then you fucking save Kevin Costner from a tornado!

Strike Two there.

Now, my biggest beef with the movie: when Superman kills General Zod. Yeah, that's right, KILLS. Superman doesn't kill. That's it. Bottom line. Superman NEVER kills anyone!!!

Strike three there for me, boys and girls!

I'm sitting here thinking of even more things about it that I didn't like but I've got other things to do right now. I'm sure you do, too. Hopefully among your things you're doing is anything but seeing this movie. It's a good movie, but the filmmakers crapped all over the history of the character. They showed almost no respect for the writers of earlier versions of Superman at all.

I'll never watch it again, that's for sure.

My review of This Is The End...and some thoughts about going to a movie theater...

Okay, I saw This Is The End yesterday. Absolutely hilarious movie! The cast is awesome and the story is better than I was expecting it to be.

It's probably not for everybody. Believe me, you don't want to take your kids or anyone too prudish to see it. There's a lot of sex talk and drug references/usage in it.

Having said that, if that kind of stuff doesn't bother you, you'll probably enjoy the movie a lot.

So...as for my thoughts on going to a movie theater...I love going. I love the experience of watching a movie, especially a comedy, with a lot of people. It's fun to hear all the various reactions to what's going on onscreen.

However...

One thing that bugged me yesterday was that during the previews, the theater must have put up about a dozen separate warnings to people about using their cell phones in the theater. I can dig that. I certainly don't want to hear people talking on their phones during the movie. I just thought it was a little extreme. One of the messages even said that they'd kick people out of the theater if they saw them texting on their phones.

Okay, a little extreme, but all good and well. But how about instead of a dozen messages about cell phones, they have a couple that tell people to SHUT THE HELL UP once the movie starts?

Really, I don't want to hear anyone talking - not even during the previews for other movies. I paid for the whole movie experience. I don't want to hear Billy Ray and Lulu sitting behind me talking about how great it is that Billy Ray, Jr. is going to be out of jail next week. I mean, sure, yay for Junior, but I don't really give a damn.

The Reason For The Lack Of Updates

Sorry. I was off on a Top Secret mission for the government. Spy shit. Can't really go into details.

Howevs (that's how the cool kids talk,) I'll be doing a posting tonight.

So, for all of you who visit here (that means you, Grandma) please check back again later this evening!

New name, new attitude, new stuff...and other things with the word "new" in front of them.

So, this place was called Buddy Gott's Writing And Reading Place. As any of you who are regular visitors here (all two of you) know, I've sucked at doing updates here.

Why is that? Well, I think part of the reason is that I didn't have much to say about my own writings. One book I had planned on writing and publishing didn't turn out to be what I wanted it to be, so I've put that one aside for now. I'm going to go back and rework it later this year, but I've moved on to other things.

My first published book will be I WAS A TEENAGE AMISH VAMPIRE and the plan is to have that out at either the end of this month or the beginning of April. It's pretty much done, but I've still got a little bit more to do on it before I send it off to my awesome editor.

But, I'm sort of straying from where I originally wanted to go here. Still with me? Cool. Thanks. My point of this posting is mainly to say that I want to get back to blogging on a regular basis. I decided to change the name of this place because I don't want to limit myself to postings just about writing and reading.

I want to be able to ramble on about whatever I want to. It may be about my books, music I like, my daily exercise routines, my incredible sex life, or about my lies about having exercise routines and an incredible sex life.

Whatever. That's the thing. It'll be a little bit about whatever I feel like at the time. My goal is to share some of my thoughts and hopefully share some laughs along the way. I'll be posting at least once a week, most likely on the weekends, but we'll see. I'm working on something that I'm going to put up either tonight or tomorrow.

In the mean time, and the not-so-mean time, thanks for stopping in! Have a great day. See ya soon!