Bad movies, ebooks, events, and temptation
Right now Patrick is sitting next to me, wearing headphones and watching an episode from a fantasy TV show (which I will not name, for reasons of kindness). He's having a very good time and laughing a lot - but possibly not for any reasons that the show-runners would approve, since he also keeps saying things like, "God, this is terrible! These are the worst special effects ever!"
It probably says something weird about me that I'm deeply tempted to set down the computer and watch the TV show with him. But then, I did grow up in a family devoted to the arcane pleasures of watching the cheesiest, most intentionally camp bad movies ever - for example, as kids, my brothers and I adored Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death and The Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and even as an adult, I used to pull those two movies out again and again as comfort viewing when I really, really needed them (like, at the end of final exams week)...
Am I alone? Or do any of you guys share my weird enjoyment of silly, camp bad movies?
I have to announce one piece of important book news and two upcoming events - but if you don't live in the UK, you can feel free to just skip the next five paragraphs, okay? You can come back and find me at the bottom of the entry, underneath the asterisks...
The big piece of news is: A Most Improper Magick is now available not only in paperback but also as an eBook in the UK! You can order it for the Kindle on Amazon.co.uk, and it should be up on Waterstones.com for Sony Readers soon, too. My understanding is that my publishers are also making it generally available in ePub format, which should be fine for iTouches and iPads as well, but I'm afraid I don't actually know where else you would look for it apart from those two big bookseller sites...can anyone tell me which UK sites you use for buying ebooks, apart from Amazon and Waterstones?
(Meanwhile, being a big dork, I of course downloaded a sample of my own book onto our Kindle. I had to! I couldn't resist!)
And I have two upcoming events, one in Newport, Wales, and one in Bristol, England. The first is this Wednesday, October 27th: Big Read Day at the River Front Theatre in Newport, where I'll be leading a writing workshop for kids aged ten and up, focusing on worldbuilding. I'm really, really looking forward to this! I'll also be signing books at the Waterstones table sometime between 1-2pm. You can check out the programs for both adults' and kids' activities and also download a booking form through the Newport City Library website.
The second event is BristolCon, just two weeks from today! I am ridiculously excited about this, because I have been just sick with con-hunger for months now. I love, love, love f/sf conventions, and I haven't been to any since EasterCon, though I've spent a lot of time sighing enviously over other people's con descriptions in the meantime. Bristolcon is a one-day event on Saturday, November 6th, and you can check out the full program here. I'll be on the "Visualising Fabulous Worlds" panel at 3:00 (with Joe Abercrombie, Kim Lakin-Smith, Mike Tucker, Andy Bigwood, and Roz Clarke), I'll give a short reading at 3:50, and I'll also sign books earlier, between 1-1:50pm. (Forbidden Planet is going to have a dealer's table at the con and will have my book in stock.)
I'm thrilled to have a con so close (only an hour's drive from home!)...and I'm also, of course, deeply frustrated because I just can't justify staying for the entire evening - MrD's bedtime is at 7pm, and we're still at the stage where I need to be around for it. Wahhh! I could give a pretty good impression of a toddler tantrum, myself, at the frustration of it all. Still, I'll be around for as much of the day as possible, and would love to meet people there!
***
OK. News and events announcements are over, we're back to normal...
...and Patrick just turned his computer around to show off a particularly, egregiously bad special effect. WOW. I may have to give up and watch the rest of that TV show after all...
Do you guys have any favorite bad movies? Confess: are there any really camp, totally silly, or even outright dire films that you just can't help loving anyway?
It probably says something weird about me that I'm deeply tempted to set down the computer and watch the TV show with him. But then, I did grow up in a family devoted to the arcane pleasures of watching the cheesiest, most intentionally camp bad movies ever - for example, as kids, my brothers and I adored Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death and The Return of the Killer Tomatoes, and even as an adult, I used to pull those two movies out again and again as comfort viewing when I really, really needed them (like, at the end of final exams week)...
Am I alone? Or do any of you guys share my weird enjoyment of silly, camp bad movies?
I have to announce one piece of important book news and two upcoming events - but if you don't live in the UK, you can feel free to just skip the next five paragraphs, okay? You can come back and find me at the bottom of the entry, underneath the asterisks...
The big piece of news is: A Most Improper Magick is now available not only in paperback but also as an eBook in the UK! You can order it for the Kindle on Amazon.co.uk, and it should be up on Waterstones.com for Sony Readers soon, too. My understanding is that my publishers are also making it generally available in ePub format, which should be fine for iTouches and iPads as well, but I'm afraid I don't actually know where else you would look for it apart from those two big bookseller sites...can anyone tell me which UK sites you use for buying ebooks, apart from Amazon and Waterstones?
(Meanwhile, being a big dork, I of course downloaded a sample of my own book onto our Kindle. I had to! I couldn't resist!)
And I have two upcoming events, one in Newport, Wales, and one in Bristol, England. The first is this Wednesday, October 27th: Big Read Day at the River Front Theatre in Newport, where I'll be leading a writing workshop for kids aged ten and up, focusing on worldbuilding. I'm really, really looking forward to this! I'll also be signing books at the Waterstones table sometime between 1-2pm. You can check out the programs for both adults' and kids' activities and also download a booking form through the Newport City Library website.
The second event is BristolCon, just two weeks from today! I am ridiculously excited about this, because I have been just sick with con-hunger for months now. I love, love, love f/sf conventions, and I haven't been to any since EasterCon, though I've spent a lot of time sighing enviously over other people's con descriptions in the meantime. Bristolcon is a one-day event on Saturday, November 6th, and you can check out the full program here. I'll be on the "Visualising Fabulous Worlds" panel at 3:00 (with Joe Abercrombie, Kim Lakin-Smith, Mike Tucker, Andy Bigwood, and Roz Clarke), I'll give a short reading at 3:50, and I'll also sign books earlier, between 1-1:50pm. (Forbidden Planet is going to have a dealer's table at the con and will have my book in stock.)
I'm thrilled to have a con so close (only an hour's drive from home!)...and I'm also, of course, deeply frustrated because I just can't justify staying for the entire evening - MrD's bedtime is at 7pm, and we're still at the stage where I need to be around for it. Wahhh! I could give a pretty good impression of a toddler tantrum, myself, at the frustration of it all. Still, I'll be around for as much of the day as possible, and would love to meet people there!
***
OK. News and events announcements are over, we're back to normal...
...and Patrick just turned his computer around to show off a particularly, egregiously bad special effect. WOW. I may have to give up and watch the rest of that TV show after all...
Do you guys have any favorite bad movies? Confess: are there any really camp, totally silly, or even outright dire films that you just can't help loving anyway?