Magic in the Moonlight is Woody Allen’s latest European summer fling, this time set on the French Mediterranean coast in the late 1920s. An insufferable egotist of a stage magician (Colin Firth in stuffed-shirt mode) is called in to debunk a supposedly bogus spiritualist (a sprightly and insubstantial Emma Stone)…
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Movie Minute – The November Man
The November Man marks Pierce Brosnan’s return to the spy/assassin genre (last outing: 2005’s The Matador). In this one, he’s a retired CIA operative drawn back into the game to rescue a lost love who has incriminating information about “the next president of Russia.” Deadly complications ensue. Yes, he’s playing…
Movie Minute – The Admiral: Roaring Currents
(It strikes me that this is my blog and I can do whatever I want with it. I’ve been writing these pint-sized movie reviews in Goodreads for some time; there’s no good reason for me to not put them here, too. So there.) The Admiral: Roaring Currents is a kind…
Publishing the Second Time Around Part 2, on Murder Lab
The Murder Lab blog just put up the missing second part of The Second Time Around, my accounting of what the second-time publishing experience was like for me. Some things changed, some didn’t, and as in life, it wasn’t always the right things that changed or stayed the same. Last…
News from the Future #4: Parents Sue over Outcome of Prom Date Sale
Another news item from the world of the near-future thriller South. 10 May 2024 NEWPORT BEACH, CA – Corona del Mar High School’s third annual Prom Date Sale struck a less-than-festive note when the parents of one of the girls involved sued the school and organizers, claiming their daughter was…
News from the Future #3: Massive DOS Attack Targets Kitchens
30 January 2028 MIAMI – Millions of football fans had to do without their game-day feasts during today’s Super Bowl when hackers launched a massive denial-of-service (DOS) attack against an unknown but large number of kitchens across the country. Reports of jammed refrigerators, hyperactive ovens and rebellious microwaves began flooding…
Midwest Book Review raves about SOUTH
The April 2014 Midwest Book Review Small Press Bookwatch includes this insanely great review of South: “South” is a riveting work of action/adventure suspense that is a real page-turner of a novel. Author Lance Charnes demonstrates a truly impressive knack for deftly creating a complex and thoroughly engaging story that…
Real-World Event: Indie Publishing Panel, 30 March 2014
I’ll be venturing into the real world to participate in an indie publishing panel sponsored by the Sherman Oaks NaNoWriMo group. My co-panelists will be Kristen Elise, mistress of Murder Lab (which I’ve mentioned before) and author of the science thriller The Vesuvius Isotope, and Leslie Ann Moore, author of…
Publishing the Second Time Around, on Murder Lab
The Murder Lab blog just put up Part 1 of The Second Time Around, my accounting of what the second-time publishing experience was like for me. Some things changed, some didn’t, and as in life, it wasn’t always the right things that changed or stayed the same. If you’re interested…
Kristen Elise: Making Science Thrilling
[Note: this is a departure for me in two ways. One, I rarely write about writing. Second, the Burrow’s never hosted a guest writer before. But Kristen Elise, author of The Vesuvius Isotope, has done something I signally failed to do in three attempts: write a thriller that involves science….