For some odd reason Paramount pulled their upcoming G.I. Joe Retaliation with stars Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, Adrianne Palicki, Ray Stevenson, Joseph Mazzello, Ray Park, and Walton Goggins from the original June 29th 2012 to March 29th, 2013. They are planning on converting the movie into 3D. Why can't Hollywood learn that movies don't look great after they have been converted. If they had filmed in the movie originally with 3D cameras, maybe that would have been alright, but I am not a fan of 3D movies. What was the purpose of releasing the first trailer during the Super Bowl? What about the soon to be released line of Hasbro toys? Or the new DVD releases of the animated series?

With the major flop of the bloated Battleship, I would say Paramount is scared of another one. Even though the first movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra did well at the box-office, it was critically panned by critics and by fans of the original cartoon. I have to admit that the Retaliation trailer looks promising and more in line with the cartoon.

Golden Chariot
AUTHOR: Chris Karlsen
PUBLISHED BY: Books to go Now
ASIN: B007KNLC02
RELEASED DATE: 2012
PAGES: 316


    Archaeologist Charlotte Dashiell is always up for a challenge, which is why she ends up at an archaeology dig of a recently found sunken ship from the Trojan War era. She is somewhat of a conspiracist with an intriguing theory about the Trojan War and being on the recovery team makes it the perfect time to find out if she is right.

    The Turkish government assigned an agent to guard the site, but is later murdered for unknown reasons, but Charlotte has her theories and the Turkish government has their own. Agent Atakan Vadim is assigned to investigate the murder with Charlotte possible being a suspect because of her connection to a private collector on the black market. As Charlotte and Atakan work together to figure out the mystery, an undeniable attraction blooms. Unknowing to them, the murders are watching them, waiting for the perfect moment to steal a rare artifact from the site.

After reading two Dark Shadow books and watching the previous greatest episodes collection, I ordered the Fan Favorites DVD, which is much cheaper than buying the series’ DVD volumes or the upcoming complete series. I haven't seen the remake yet and sadly it's a box office flop compared to other Tim Burton/Johnny Depp films.

For the readers that don't know what Dark Shadows is about, please let me brush you up on it. Dark Shadow aired on ABC-TV from 1966-1971 in the afternoons with a blend of Gothic romance and supernatural horror plots, which was somewhat groundbreaking for a soap opera of it's time. The ghostly plot was added about six months into the series. Afraid of cancellation, the creator Dan Curtis brought in Jonathan Frid to play the vampire cursed Barnabas Collins to increase ratings. For several years the series was a success, taking in over twenty million viewers at its peak.

Some writers possess that effortless gift for weaving story lines, themes, and character studies together in just the right way, until a plot emerges fully developed. Like magic. Some writers can do this without breaking a sweat.

For me, plotting a novel is like pulling teeth, only not nearly so pleasant. When I have a tooth extracted, a good dentist (unless he’s Dr. Scrivello from Little Shop of Horrors) will shoot me full of Novocain to ease the pain. No one shows up with a feel-good hypodermic when I’m stuck in the weeds with great people, a wonderful setting, and no plot. Plotting is a tricky business when you’re writing a mystery. The suspects must have a reason for the reader to suspect them, the clues must be legitimate, red herrings must be planted to keep the reader guessing, and it all has to make sense in the end. Throw a believable romance into the mix, where the hero and heroine have internal and external conflicts they must resolve while falling in love, staying alive, and solving a crime, and you have a bloody nightmare. Or, at the least, a fairly intense six months of pounding your head against the keyboard.

Developing a plot is not easy for a writer (me!) who is a hybrid, that weird combination of a plotter and a pantser. I’m never fully satisfied with either approach. Part of me longs to make neat color coded charts and graphs instead of a shuffling through a pile of notes scribbled on scraps of paper. The other part wishes I could sit in front of the computer screen and let my imagination soar by the seat of its pants from beginning to end. But that, of course, would take forever, so I end up doing an odd combination of both.

ANGEL & FAITH VOLUME 1: LIVE THROUGH THIS
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PUB DATE: July 3, 2012
ISBN: 9781595828873 
AUTHOR: Christos Gage
CONTRIBUTORS: Dan Jackson, Phil Noto, Rebekah Isaac, and Steve Morris


The Angel & Faith comic book series takes place during the Season 9 Buffyverse, where the renegade slayer Faith is helping Angel recuperate his way back to being good after being possessed by the “Twilight” during the season 8 comic book storyline, in which all magic was destroyed. Faith inherited Rupert Giles’s estate along with the watcher’s files after he was murdered by Angel. In the four part issue Live Through This, after defeating a demon that Giles once fought, Angel starts having visions of Giles and Jenny Calendar, whom both died by his hands. Feeling regret, Angel looks for away to bring Giles back and to make amends to the others that he hurt when he was “Twilight.”

    This series is set in London, where Angel is trying to clean up the streets by fighting the local demons with the help of Faith when she isn’t busy partying. Angel searches for Mohra blood in hope that he can reanimate Giles’s body. They are introduced to two new villains Nash and Pearl who are taking advantage of the no magic Earth.