Status Update

I was planning to start this post with 'Hi World', but as soon as I typed it, I realized that I REALLY need(ed) a better opening. I guess this is it. Anyway, let's to it....

Novels

The proofread of Buried Secrets is done. So now I am (slowly) correcting the manuscript. At the same time, the proofread for A Guy, Two Girls and a Serial Killer is now in progress. And the research for the commercial campaign has also begun. (While I am continuing to safe money for said campaign.) So while there is no visible action, things are happening in the background.

MCU

I haven't really been keeping up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe's TV-show branch. But I've gotten my hands on what I've missed, so that I can use those shows to get through the Christmas Period Gap. (TV series - like, for example NCIS - tend to stop some time before Christmas and don't resume until after New Year's.) Which I guess is a nice Segway into....

TV-Shows

CSI

I watched the Vegas show up to 7x02. But by Season 6, I felt the show had jumped the shark. Season 5 was iffy to me, but I decided to keep it. So my advice: Season 1 through 5, watch. Season 6 till the end....don't bother, move on to CSI Miami.

Which is exactly what I did. I'm planning to watch Miami up to the end of season 4, then move on to the first two season of CSI: NY. As for CSI: Cyber.....I refuse to touch that show with a ten foot pole. And we're walking....

Doctor Who

I'm totally used to the 13th Doctor now. The sex change doesn't matter. (Demons of the Punjab was especially heart wrenching.) So, moving on to.....

Magnum P.I

....the Magnum P.I. reboot. The show is.....well, it's okay. But it is missing that special something. The original show was better, MUCH better, because it knew when and how turn off the gags and adrenaline. And when it did, it was gold.

The new show has not shown that ability yet. And if it wants to be a worthy successor, it's going to have to. So for now, my assessment is......meh, watchable. But nothing special.

And that's it for today.

Regards,

Edmond Dantes

Changing Plans (and titles)

(Aka....what's going with my novels)

Hello World,

So, in my last post, I said that I wanted to publish my next novel before 2019. Alas, that is not going to happen. Instead - and with a bit of luck - it will be hitting the internet in early(ish ?) 2019. So, why the delay ? Well....because I want to do it right. And - as much as I hate to admit it - that means patience.

On the bright side, taking the patient approach means that I have time to undo the mess I made with my first novel, which was called Hollywood. Was being operative word. The plan was to name each book after the main location. Alas, Hollywood turned out to be such generic a title that my book ended up lost in the deep recess of the internet.

So my original plan went out the window. (As Ronald D. Moore said, your ideas are your babies. But sometimes - for the good of the story - you have to kill your baby.) Hence, both Hollywood and Bullhorn were retitled.

Another thing I changed about my first novel, was the cover. The old one used a default picture provided by Bol.com. And finally, I neglected to publish my novel in the E-book format. But the greatest mistake I made with my first novel, was the complete lack of a commercial campaign. The patient approach allows me to safe money to properly promote my novel(s) this time around.

So....yeah....it will be a bit longer, but....When it does come around, publishing day will not only see Buried Secrets, but also a new (and improved) re-print of A Guy, Two Girls and a Serial Killer. Both books will be available as paperback and E-book.

That's all for now folks.

Regards,

Edmond Dantes

Still on this mortal coil....

....and moving forward

Hello world,

So....it's been a while since I've blogged or tweeted. The simply truth is that there hasn't been that much to share. Work on book three of the August Smith adventures - which will be titled Cairo - has (finally) begun.

Up until now, it had been frozen solid. If you listen to the same music again and again while you are writing, it will begin to loose its effect. Fortunately, I remembered that I have three season worth of CSI on DVD. The bad news is that Gil Grissom and company are distracting. But at least things have gone from frozen solid to slow.

And why do I only have three seasons of CSI and not all of them ? Well, I guess now would be a good time to talk about the....

ER Effect

ER (aka Emergency Room - created by Michael Crichton) was a great show in the early seasons. I still liked the later seasons, but I do agree with the major criticism of the show. As ER went along, the storylines got bigger, which eroded the realism.

In my humble opinion, CSI also suffered from this. I understand why it happened - the writers were trying to hold onto their viewers - and it is one of the major pitfalls of (television) writing. It doesn't mean that the writers are bad. And it is really hard to avoid. Anyway, it made me bow out of CSI after season four. But I'm digressing, which is my Segway back to...

Bullhorn

The typing is done. I also found somebody to check the text for mistakes. (Typos, missing words, etc.) I've also got tomorrow set for a major planning. (Looking for a photo that I can use for the cover. Setting some deadlines.) I'm also going to work on republishing Hollywood (aka Book one of the August Adventures) as an E-book. Bullhorn will be published as both a traditional book and an E-book. And with that, we move on to...

TV-Season

Finally, tomorrow (24-9) is the start of premiere season. For me, it starts with the latest addition to the NCIS-verse, the reboot of Magnum PI. I really liked version 1.0, so they will have to do really well to make the new version worth my time. (It's been stated that Magnum PI will crossover with Hawaii Five-0, which has been established as being part of the NCIS-verse by means of connections to NCIS Los Angeles and MacGyver.) Still, I'll give it a shot.

As for the end...well, for me that is Supergirl on 14 October. And between that is plenty of action. Alas, Star Trek Discovery is not coming around until 2019. Fortunately, I have a crazy woman in a police phone box to give me my sci-fi fix until then.

And with that, this post comes to end.
Take care.

Edmond Dantes

The Next Phase

Hello world,

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I finished writing my second novel Bullhorn. The bad news is that it will be a while before I will be able to publish it. At the moment, the last chunk is not in my computer yet. So I need to fix that first.

And....wait, second novel, there was a first ?....yep. There was, and here's the proof:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hollywood-Edmond-Dantes/dp/940214708X

Alas, I *really* botched the promotion on that. I spent 70 euros on a newspaper advertisement, which got me zero sales. Fortunately, I learned from my mistake. So when I started Bullhorn, I also started saving money for my promotion campaign. Also, I've been working on enhancing my internet footprint, creating both a twitter account and a LinkedIn page.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-hilbers-73b603136/
https://twitter.com/Dantes74302

But I still have a lot of research and thinking to do (and typing, don't forget the typing). So...when is Bullhorn coming out ? To be honest, I don't know it. But I am totally determent that waiting until 2019 is not an option. And I'm going to make a hard push for the last quarter of 2018. So stay tuned, folks.

Regards,

Edmond Dantes

Stargate: Time to make a move....

...and go old school ?

Hello World,

So, it's been a while. Which is because I've been enjoying a much needed vacation on the lovely island of Crete. Good weather, lovely nature and wonderful people. Alas, that is now all over and the time has come to get the gears of work going again. Including my blog. So here goes...

Stargate

One of the things I have been pondering is the Stargate (Franchise) and it's future. In case you haven't read my previous posts: It's looking pretty bleak. And how MGM has been interacting with the fan base. It hasn't. And - of course - what the fans have done to try to get MGM to make a statement...ANY statement about said future.

And the simple fact is that the fans have tried everything. Well....except for a letter writing campaign. But...isn't that really old fashioned ? I mean, even Joseph Mallozzi said that ' the time of letter writing campaigns has past'. The thing is......that is probably true. But what is there to lose ? Some stamps ? Some paper ? Things can't really get worse, can they ? So...

Le Plan

Write a letter, write a postcard, write on a napkin....who cares ? Just tell MGM you like Stargate and want more. And send it to:

Mark Burnett
MGM Studios Inc.
245 North Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
United States of America

Fact, fiction and physics

Hello world,

Okay, so I sort of did this post ages ago. (All the way back in 2011. But trust me, do yourself a favor and don't look it up. For....) It was badly written and since then some things have changed. So here comes version 2.0.

Several decades ago, Gardner Fox created the DC comics multiverse. Back in those days, he suggested that while he slept, he dreamed of several fictional characters, because he ended up 'in tune' with an alternate universe where his characters were real.

While this may have been meant to be tongue-in-cheek, the times have changed. And with it, so has our understanding of physics. And also the scientific multiverse. Which is where the line between the two multiverses begins to start blurring.

Quantum theory proposes a particle will not take one path, but every path possible. Or....Anything that can happen, will happen. And even the tiniest slither of a chance is enough. (You don't need a fifty percent chance, or even one percent.) Thus leading to an infinite amount of universes. And infinite versions of people and events. And this applies to all matter in existence...

Including actors, sets and props. So, what does this mean for the border between fact and fiction ? Does that mean that the actor and the character as basically two versions on the same piece of matter ? For does that mean that - somewhere out there, in the vast multiverse - these characters are real ? And - since nothing truly exists in a vacuum - so are their fictional universes ? Making (the fantastic) Mr. Fox's claim considerably less tongue-in-cheek ? And what are the moral implications of that ? For example....

Since it is the laws of physics that control what can happen, and not the copyright law. Does that mean that both the BBC's Time Lords and Marvel's Asgard exist ? And does that mean that the Asgard chose not to help the Time Lords during the Last Great Time War ? (Remember, if this theory is true, we're talking real life here. Which makes the fact that these two races are from two different franchises a non-factor.)

And that's just one example. So...does this theory hold up ? And if it does....what does it mean ? Decide for yourself ?

Edmond Dantes

MGM and Stargate

Hello World,

So the dust has settled and.....as expected....my Pitch for SGU 2.0 has (come and) gone completely ignored. While I could throw a fit about this, doing so would not do anybody any good. I will, however, point out that this is part of a pattern. (I did this in the letter that came with my pitch, but I see no reason not to do so again.)

For over the years (since the end of SGU), there was been many attempts to bring back Stargate. Petitions, twitterstorms and even a kickstarter campaign. All to no avail. And all (completely) ignored by MGM.

So....what has MGM been doing with Stargate ? The answer is....not much. There was, of course, the disastrous reboot movie plan. Well, disastrous for the studio. I suspect that many a Gater secretly celebrated when the proposed trilogy collapsed following the train wreck that was ID4: Regurgitated Plot. Since then, MGM has been trying to keep the fans pleased by occasionally throwing them a bone...

The bad result: The Back to Destiny comics.  The good result: Stargate Origins.

Alas, this does not spell anything good for the future of Stargate Origins. Because the silence on the Stargate front makes it feel like SGO was nothing more then a stunt. But this is simply my opinion. And I right or wrong ? Decide for yourself.

Edmond Dantes