Annihilation (2018)

Movies

Something crash lands into a lighthouse located in the United States. A strange phenomenon begins to emanate from the landing site, a sort of bubble or force field. The US government quickly moves in and quarantines the area. Luckily, the site is easy to keep secret as it’s in a rather remote and unpopulated area. The bubble, deemed The Shimmer, proves to be impossible to research because anything sent in never comes out, even data transmissions. It’s a total mystery as to what’s in or going on in there. The Shimmer is expanding and when a military team disappears inside, the government becomes very worried that time is running out. Then, a year after the last human expedition went into The Shimmer, one of the men appears at his home, greeting his wife, Lena, who thought he was dead. His mission was a total secret, he never told her where he was going and she never got an answer from his superiors. He immediately becomes ill and during the trip to the hospital, the ambulance is pulled over by armed guards and Lena wakes up isolated in some kind of facility. It is here where she finds out about the threat and she volunteers to go into The Shimmer with four other female scientists in a final effort to solve the mystery.

The terrific Alex Garland directed and adapted the book of the same name into this wild ride which I consider one of the genre’s best. Despite the large premise of the story, Annihilation has its eyes focused on relationships.

This movie is cool in many ways. It’s an alien invasion movie but it’s not. It’s an action movie and it’s not. It’s just as beautiful as it is horrific. Anchored by Natalie Portman, the cast is very strong. Movies led by an all female cast are pretty rare still, especially one where they are in a high stakes military mission so this changes the perspective quite a bit.

I felt like the pacing was pretty much perfect as just enough info is given at the start and by going with the women into the unknown, picking up on the trail from the doomed team before them, makes all of their discoveries and battles taught and intriguing. Why is Lena doing this, why are any of them going in there when they know the odds are so stacked against them? That’s part of the journey. The other is what’s at the lighthouse? Both are tough questions to answer in new and interesting ways and the answers shown are the biggest reasons why I liked this so much.

Aside from the story, Annihilation is a visual feast. Inside The Shimmer, our world is changing. It’s subtle at first, little things are different and then the mutations get bigger and more extreme. There’s a really cool visual design throughout that’s hard to describe. It’s like nature being deconstructed and reconstructed, familiar and foreign at the same time. Many times it looks like a painting come to life.

This movie is a real head trip so I’m hesitant to give many details up. It’s important to see each element presented in the order the movie shows you. And a lot of is a surprise so that’s half of the fun. It all stacks up to create a thought-provoking sci-fi movie with a great ending. We don’t get many of those.

The Darkest Winter Update 14

The Darkest Winter

On Tuesday I went to the North Haledon library to talk to the book club about my novel, The Darkest Winter.

This is the first time I’ve done an appearance for my work and as far as firsts go, I couldn’t ask for a better experience. Susan, the director of the library is a fantastic host and her patrons clearly love all of her hard work. There were eight women in attendance, a great turnout considering the bad weather.

So what was it like? The first thing that jumped out to me was all of the copies of The Darkest Winter on the tables in the section of the library we used. I got a rush of adrenalin when I saw them. Tangible proof that my book is out in the public and people are reading it. I got an incredible feeling of accomplishment from that.

Better yet, everyone liked my book! If that doesn’t get your ego to perk up, nothing will! I started off by giving the background of how I came up with the story, sitting cold, in the dark, in my bedroom on the third night of Hurricane Sandy. I segued to making Tim’s route across the country and my desire to show various people and communities throughout his whole journey. They loved the scenarios, action sequences, and most importantly my characters. I got a lot of compliments for how I wrote Tim’s apartment complex coming together.

That turned into discussions about humanity, how we see, regard, and treat each other. We talked quite a bit about our nation’s infrastructure, which is a major part of the book. I think the most questions came from that (along the lines of, would help take that long to happen) and that allowed me to discuss the finer details of my research that didn’t make it into the text.

The most fascinating and pleasing part of the afternoon was that just about everyone related a part–or multiple parts–of my story to their own lives. The characters I created reminded them of people from their lives and they shared stories of their own. It was so cool and it was something I didn’t expect to happen.

The event quickly turned from me doing a speaking engagement to having a discussion. I don’t think I made that happen, it organically turned into that. Now on reflection, I can think of something I want to improve.

I need to stop myself from rambling. I know this story inside and out, I’m eager to talk about it with interested people, so I can go on and on. I need to prepare more concise answers (many old questions from my writers’ group came up) I need to open it up to discussion sooner and more frequently. I did realize what I was doing at least and stopped myself a few times. Becoming aware of others (changing) body language is a good way to gauge their interest. Also, there’s a certain feeling in the air when an audience is ready to move along. I need to be more cognizant of these things in the future.

Another great experience with The Darkest Winter and I now know I have quite a few people looking forward to a sequel or two.

Lady Bird

Movies

Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson is ready to leave Sacramento, California behind. She’s in her senior year of high school and she wants nothing more than to leave the west coast. New York City is her goal, so applying to schools is the start of her escape plan. Lady Bird is very sure of herself but as the year goes on, she experiences a world of changes. The Lady Bird at the start of the movie is a different woman from the one at the end.

Coming of age movies are one of my favorites and Lady Bird is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Saoirse Ronan is a tremendous actor and she brings the conflicted Lady Bird to life. A concoction of dreams, fears, low-self esteem, regret, loyalty, angst, and anger are constantly mixing together in her mind. She’s a sweet girl who’s sure she knows what she wants (in leaving home at least) and inadvertently steps on a lot of toes in the process. Her greatest flaw is probably when she acts without thinking of anyone but herself. She says things to others as a joke and when it blows back onto her, she has to scramble to apologize. She also lies a lot in order to fit in with others, who she thinks she wants to be like the most. That brings her trouble too.

Lady Bird is a great character as she is believably flawed. She’s not a bad person, she just often sticks her foot into her mouth. As a teenager, she thinks she knows everything, what’s right for her at every turn but in reality, she has a lot of growing up to do. Her father is a teddy bear of a human being where her mother is the authority. Laurie Metcalf is another tremendous actor and her chemistry with Saoirse is largely why the movie works so well Lady Bird’s best friend Julie is also a very important part of the story, like the footbridge between adult and childhood. Lady Bird constantly butts heads with her mother, mostly being catty to each other but thee are a few instances where things get real and they have it out. Her mother is a hard ass for sure, she can be overbearing to the point of suffocation, but Lady Bird does need someone to call her out on her nonsense when it flares up.

While a lot happens in the movie (romantic relationships, social climbing, applying to colleges) the story revolves around how Lady Bird sees herself and wants to become much more. Growing up in a lower income home skews her perspective. She lives next door to a much more affluent part of town, goes to school with kids from that area, and she wants nothing more than to live that life that she’s convinced is better in every way. Much of her motivation to leave home comes from this, she’s ashamed of where she’s from and how her family lives.

Lady Bird lies to try and get a leg up and fit in, dumps her best friend to hang out with the cool kids, dates the popular boy and finds out that’s not what she expected at all. She is at the pivotal time where she’s finding out who she is and what she stands for. Her future is totally up in the air and for the first time, she’s becoming aware that all the decisions she makes now have big repercussions. She also comes to realize that her home and her family–what she’s “ashamed” of–is way more valuable than she realized.

It’s Lady Bird’s relationships with others that I found the most compelling and enduring. How she acts and handles each group: her parents, her adopted brother and his girlfriend, her boyfriends, her new best friend Jenna, and her true ride or die friend, Julie. It’s these relationships that I thought of the most once the credits rolled. The end is pretty abrupt when it happens but I think it’s the perfect choice on reflection.

We get to follow Lady Bird through the most important year of her young life so far. We know her goal right from the start and the question is always will she be able to do it? She goes through a lot in that year, we blast through it in about 90 minutes and more than just her life changes in that time. It’s not a total metamorphosis of course, as a year can contain only so much. For example, she makes a stupid decision when she’s arguing with her mother in the car in the first scene and at the end, she makes another painful mistake. But she’s learning. When the movie cuts from Lady Bird that final time, her journey for that part of her life is over. Everything after that is brand new territory.

2018 Finale

Life, NY Rangers, The Darkest Winter

We made it another year everybody! It’s been a weird one.

I achieved my big goal, to become a published author. The Darkest Winter became available to the public in September and the response has been all positive. It was a mountain of work but the satisfaction in getting it done, and done well, makes it worth it. I learned a lot, have a lot more to learn, I’ll do some things differently, and I’ll take that all with me into 2019. I’m more or less ready to move on from TDW, new stories need my attention. I have a speaking engagement on January 8th, so around that time I’ll probably write my final pure TDW update.

I have some ideas but nothing tangable has come from it yet. Two sequels to TDW and a original idea. The new idea is most intreging to me, it’s got the most potential I think (translation: the idea interests me the most right now) so I’ll probably work on that exclusively to see if I can turn it into an actual story that works (it’s ambitious).

Aside from that, I’m ready for 2019. I think this year has been weird for all of us and we all just want things to get better from here. Also, I’d like the New York Rangers to stop shooting themselves in the foot all the time so they can show everyone they are competitive.

Take care yourself and each other. Talk to you again soon.

Three Piece Movie Combo

Movies, Netflix Original

It’s a mix of genres for this post. I’ll start off with the biggest title.

Bird Box

This one is getting a lot of attention online. As a Netflix exclusive that stars Sandra Bullock, that’s not too surprising. Thriller/horror movies get a lot of buzz these days so hopes were high for this book translation. Bullock plays Malorie, a woman on her own who is expecting her first child in a few months. One day an epidemic breaks out, some kind of creature that compels people to commit suicide when they see it. These beings quickly devastates the world population and as the movie jumps from past to present, the invasion continues for 5 years with no reprieve.

I had high hopes going into this and it was more or less a let down at every turn. It was surprisingly boring which was really weird considering the premise. First and foremost, every character comes off as a character, not a real person. Everyone clearly has their typecast role and no one deviates from it. Bullock does a fine job with her acting, but it’s not enough to save the movie. When you first meet her character, she’s obnoxious and vapid, so I never connected with her. Despite being the heroine and doing truly heroic things at times, I didn’t care what happened to her.

The film is very conservative in its horror too as it never dares to show anything that intense or gruesome. A lot happens off camera. The creatures are seemingly ethereal, they can’t interact with solid objects (can’t open doors, break things) so the basic survival method is, cover the windows and stay inside. That’s not too interesting. The interest would be survival in such conditions and the stress it puts on the people who are together. Again, that all falls rather flat as while there is in-fighting, it never seems like a threat. Running out of resources never felt like a problem. While scenarios are made to throw chaos and surprises at you, all of it is predictable so again, there’s no weight to it. The creatures are shown as little more than a shadow so that’s disappointing as well.

The ending felt all wrong too as you watched someone being chased basically the entire time get a “don’t worry, it’s cool here” break. The whole thing just isn’t interesting. A few days ago I read a theory that the movie is a metaphor for racism (if you stick your head in the sand, racism doesn’t exist because you can’t see it) which is way more interesting and thought provoking. Considering how paper thin the entire movie is, I don’t think that idea crossed anyone’s mind in the making of this.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

Hollywood tends to run with a hive mind. A theme or genre becomes the thing to do and similar projects get worked on at different studios. In this case, it’s the Jungle Book. Disney got their reboot/re-imagining out first to great fan fair. This version, directed by Andy Serkis, took longer and ended up not getting a theatrical release. Enter the Netflix pick-up crew.

I liked Jon Favreau’s take. It was a gorgeous movie at times and it played it more or less safe in the Disney mold. Mowgli is a bit more grounded, certainly less bombastic. I might even like it a bit more as I thought Jungle Book dragged on for too long. I definitely felt more of a connection with this version of the Mowgli character. You rarely leave his side and his story arc, being orphaned and raised by wolves, accepted on the fringes but still very much alone, to be very compelling. A kid trying to fit in a world he doesn’t exactly fit into and being shoved into another world he wants no part in. I really liked watching his guardians Bagheera and Baloo do their best for him, to the point where they both fight over his well being. When Mowgli gets cast out of the pack, I felt heartbroken over it. Then, when he interacts with people for the first time, it’s horrible but he’s soon shown compassion and there’s an interesting angle there about being accepted. Because he looks like everyone else for the first time in his life there’s is a level of basic need and comfort there.

In time he sees the ugly side of humanity and that forces Mowgli to make up his own mind about what family means to him and what his purpose in life is. Shere Kahn is kept as a better menace in this one too (JB veers off to the monkey king for a while with a massive action sequence, one of the scenes I think Mowgli does better) and I really liked Mowgli’s relationship with Bhoot, which I think is something JB is lacking.

Jungle Book does look better though, it’s much more majestic. The animals in Mowgli look off and it took me a while to figure out why. In the animated and Favreau versions of this story, the animals are romanticized versions of wild animals. They all look healthy and happy. In this version, the animal’s fur is matted with grime, and they are malnourished. They look like they live in a jungle and for the time at least, food isn’t plentiful. You see it most on Baloo, who in the animated version looks like he’s had his fair share of honey (he might have a sharecropping deal with Winnie the Pooh). Serkis Baloo looks like he could use another 150 pounds or so.

A strong ending put the finishing touches on a movie I enjoyed way more than I thought I would.

The Package

It’s important to go into a dumb comedy knowing it’s a dumb comedy. It sets expectations. The title and synopsis of the move make it pretty obvious as to what’s going to happen and the movie delivers (the package) on that. Four teenage friends go on a camping trip and an accident forces the crew to help their friend save his most precious body part.

Produced by the guys who made the show Workaholics and the movie Game Over, Man! you can guess the levels of cursing, situations, and absurdity this movie goes to. It actually goes much father in visuals than Bird Box does which is funny in itself.

I got what I wanted out of this. There are laughs sprinkled throughout with one standout scene that I thought was hilarious. The cast is great and every character gets a backstory and the time to be more than just window dressing. Yes it’s dumb, yes it’s gross, but that’s the goal and I think it’s a well made movie. The escalation of terrible events is done just right and with a 90 minute run-time, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Watch this instead of Bird Box, you’ll probably get more out of it.

Media Lull Round UP

Movies

It’s been awhile! For everything! We’re in the thick of the holidays so there’s a lot of slowdown. Great time to catch up on movies with TV on haitus but that ends next week.

It’s been some time since I’ve watched a movie I really liked. I’ve watched 3 this week and I’ll be doing quick hits of those this weekend. I plan on getting out to see Aquaman in January, which I’m looking forward to.

Netflix keeps putting out shows I like so a lot of my free time has been put there. Let’s go over some stuff.

Ink Master finished another season and this year was themed to a Grudge match. Cleen and Christian coached teams and overall it was a fun watch. The final 4 were tremendous talents but good lord do I hate the finales of this show. So much back-biting and trash talking makes it such a drag. I jump ahead to see the final pieces and the results.

On SYFY I completely missed Nightflyers and the new season of Channel Zero. I’m halfway through Nightflyers (if you can use the SYFY app on a media device instead of their website. The video player on the site is not good). I like but do not love Nightflyer. It looks gorgeous, the cast is great but there’s something about it that doesn’t make me seek it out like other similar-ish shows like The Expanse. I don’t like most of the characters, I think that’s why. I’m hoping it all comes together. When I finish, I move on to Channel Zero. I think Happy! starts soon and the ads for Deadly Class are interesting so that’s two more for SYFY.

The final season of Gotham starts on the 4th!

I was fortunate enough for DC to gift me a year subscription to their new DC Universe service. That gave me access to the first season of Titans which I have been looking forward to. First and foremost, it isn’t Teen Titans which the fan base knows and loves the best. The tone of this show is much different and the only thing they really have in common (so far) are the main characters of Robin, Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire. I think you need to drop the expectations for a live-action Teen show coming into this, that’s how much different they are (Titans is a very dark, adult take on the property). It’s a little slow to get going but overall I like it. Cliff hanger ending, but I think the casting is right on and they sell the story well. Robin is pretty fresh from leaving Batman behind due to (mostly) ethical reasons. Beast Boy has been living an isolated life so finding this group of misfits is the start of something great for him, even if it is dangerous and challenging. Raven’s powers are just starting so she has no idea what’s going on and that’s the main arc of the season. Starfire is the most different. We meet her “on the job” but she doesn’t know what that job is. She can’t remember what she’s here for only that she’s looking for Raven. Dressed as a prostitute, it means she’s been in some shady places trying to put things together. She’s comfortable on Earth, having no idea she’s not from here. Her childish and goofy charm isn’t part of this take which I don’t mind. I think her fish out of water mistakes/comments would have gotten old fast. It’s a short season so it moves at a good clip and teases a lot of DC tie-ins which I like so I’m invested in what happens. This is just the start of their original programming and there’s a great promise. Doom Patrol is next, the return of Young Justice should be fantastic (it never should have been canceled, it’s easily one of the best animated DC shows) and Swamp Thing is filming now. There’s more coming down the pipe but those shows are a ways off.

Now for Netflix. Voltron is finished and I liked it a lot. They put a lot of work into wrapping everything up and I think they did an admirable job. The timing of seasons coming out felt random so there is disjointed feeling I got from watching each chunk. There’s a lot I didn’t remember right away (I never went back to rewatch) but this show really scratches that sci-fi itch. Great characters, great animation, and some terrific sound design make it the total package. The ending had some serious weight to it, glad I watched it.

3Below: Tales of Arcadia. The spin-off series from Troll Hunters. I forgot all about this so when it popped up about a week ago, I dove right in. The tie-in to TH turned out great. Fun and inventive way to spin out this universe into another one about an alien prince and princess. It maintained the quality of animation and I really like Aja, Krel, and Varvatos Vex. The fish out of water stuff was often really funny, the writing on this show is really good. My only problem was with their pet, Luug. Why does this alien animal sound exactly like a dog? Sure you have to suspend your disbelief to make a lot of this show work (everyone speaks English, for example) but this doesn’t match the creativity put into the rest of the show.

I’ve been away from anime for a long time so I was happy to see a new batch of Seven Deadly Sins episodes. This show is basically a version of Dragon Ball Z but with way better pacing. All the problems are unsurprisingly still there though. Some really horrific dialog, which I think is mostly from directly translating Japanese to English so the syntax is all wrong. Another annoyance is when something happens on screen (like a monster getting cut with a sword) and a character will say exactly what happened. Nothing that ads context or background, but a literal replay in dialog form (“The sword cut the monster, it must be a sharp blade”). It’s the weirdest waste of time. The other problem is this show can get really uncomfortable to watch. The main character, Meliodas, gropes Elizabeth’s chest, looks up her skirt, and she does not like it. He basically ambushes her randomly and she recoils in horror every time. Saying it’s perverted is an understatement and it ruins every moment. Crazy costumes that exploit female bodies is a long staple of this genre but this stuff is mind-bogglingly stupid. I don’t know why they still do stuff like this. It serves no good purpose and is such a slam-on-the-breaks blight to an otherwise good show.

I can’t remember if I wrote about the second season of Castlevania, but I’ll say it’s totally worth watching. Some of the action is killer and the final fight is especially fantastic. The best choreography I’ve seen since the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last year (the CG one).

I just started Sirus the Jaeger which has something to do with vampire hunters so I’m hoping it’ll be cool. I’m dying for some good anime, it’s been so long since I’ve seen a good one worth recommending.

I went through the entire The Great British Baking Show collection (except for Masterclass) in like 3 months and if you need something to kick back to, this is it. You can have it on the background while you do stuff and it’s just as enjoyable. One of my favorite competition shows, there’s a lot of jolly vibes in every episode.

I just started Sick Note which stars Rupert Grint and Nick Frost. I saw Rupert on the thumbnail and had to give it a try. Rupert plays Dennis, a 20 something shlub who is lazy and takes everything good in his life for granted. On his worst day ever. his girlfriend kicks him out, his job is threatened, and to top it off, he’s diagnosed with cancer. The hook is, due to stupid Dr. Glennis (Frost), Dennis is given the wrong info, he doesn’t have cancer. Dennis notices a rather nice upswing in his life when he told everyone he had cancer and instead of telling the truth, he doubles down to milk it for a few months and everything spirals from there. I’m on episode 2 (of 12, don’t know if there is more) and it’s great. It’s obviously a dark comedy and man, by the end of episode 1 they go to places I didn’t even think of.

When I’m done with Sick Note I’ll stay on that side of the pond with Derry Girls. That or the final season of A Series of Unfortunate Events. That drops on January 1st so I’m not sure which will pull me in first.

Three Piece Action Movie Combo

Movies

Pacific Rim: Uprising– I’m a fan of the first movie that came out in 2013. Guillermo del Toro making a sci-fi giant robots fighting giant monsters action movie was basically made for me. While it had its faults with a simple plot, I think it did what it wanted to. It set up a new universe and showed audiences giant robots fighting giant monsters in spectacular fashion. The sequel starts 10 years later with the human race largely recovered from the alien beings invading through the dimensional rift that opened in the Pacific Rim. Wealthy countries rebounded much faster than other locations, but as far as everyone is concerned, the war was won. The aliens had an ace up their sleeve though and as time has passed, they have quietly been setting up the next invasion. A young generation of Yaeger pilots is introduced, including Jake, the son of Stacker Pentecost, one of the heroes from the original. As a whole, I liked this new one has it showed me more of what I liked. That’s a basic need for any sequel. Many more robot and monster types and more action (that’s set during the day with no rain!) that show off how mankind has pulled together to defend the planet. But it also doesn’t do anything new or daring. There’s very little lore added to the universe (I don’t think they even mention what happened to Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh Becket) and the movie boils down to the exact same arc of the first movie: the best defense is with teamwork. Now the set up for a sequel looks to do more, but it’s disappointing that more wasn’t done with this story. Meet the new team, show them training, the threat grows, the threat comes out, the final fight, credits. While I did enjoy it, Uprising is a rote adventure that hangs its hat on giants for its action scenes in an attempt to stand out.

Hotel Artemis– A really neat premise of a movie with a stacked cast. In the not too distant future, Los Angeles is in a state of chaos over fresh water. In the city is the Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital for criminals that is run by The Nurse. She’s been running this members-only facility for around twenty years and she’s pushed to her limit when a volatile mix of clients come knocking. There are strict rules set up for the Artemis to function and things fall apart when those rules are broken. If you’ve seen John Wick, this idea may sound rather familiar. I think it’s safe to say the idea for Hotel Artemis was taken from the assassin hideout in the Wick series. While the general idea of the facility is similar, the story is quite different. The Nurse is the main character and as the movie progresses we learn more about her and the hotel. I liked this a whole lot as I was always surprised at how many story layers there are (something that Pacific Rim: Uprising is sorely lacking) and was happy to see each layer get pulled back. I’m a fan of assassin movies and Artemis gave me my fill. Fun characters that are put into a pressure cooker, each with their own motives and histories. Some have met, others have not. Check out this cast list: Jodie Foster, Dave Bautista, Sterling K. Brown, Jeff Goldblum, Charlie Day (I don’t know what the odds are of watching two movies that Charlie is in back to back unintentionally), Zachary Quinto, and Sofia Boutella. It looks cool, it’s acted slick and the action was surprisingly on point. I give the action set piece gold star to Sofia Boutella’s hallway gauntlet. A lovely mix of vicious and sexy. I even liked the ending so I’m happy to report that the Hotel Artemis was a pleasant surprise.

Tomb Raider (2018)- I wanted to like this. The one sentence review is this was a disappointment. It’s not a bad movie, it just sits somewhere in the middle with nothing there to elevate it to greatness. The plot follows closely to the recent game reboot: a young Lara Croft, with no adventures under her belt, follows a path left behind from her father’s disappearance and assumed death to a remote island that hides a legendary power. So we have some globe-trotting, a bunch of chase sequences, gun and fist fights, and a little bit of bow and arrow work from Lara. It’s all well made too. Well shot, special effects are good, editing and acting are fine. It all falls flat though, there’s just no meat to bite into. I think Alicia Vikander does a fine job as Lara but with so many action movies coming out every year, you need to do something to stand out from the rest. I don’t think Tomb Raider does. I can compare it to Mission Impossible: Fallout. While that movie leans heavily on what’s come before, the whole “we’ve been abandoned by the government, again!” angle, the action on display is mindboggling exciting and unique. Tomb Raider just doesn’t reach the bar set by its peers. If you skip this, you aren’t missing out on anything.

The NHL: 1st Quarter Report

NY Rangers

We have just past the 20 game mark of the season and I am happy to say that watching the NY Rangers isn’t a form of torture anymore. The first 10 games were a horror show and we’re now in the middle of a win streak that no one thought was possible (8-1-1 if I’m remembering right).

Going from 3-7-1 to 11-8-2 for 24 points has jumped the Rangers into second place in the Eastern Conference, which is nuts. 1 point ahead of the Stanley Cup Champions, the Washington Capitals (first game against them is this Saturday). Other important numbers: 14th in the league, Nashville is 1st with 31 points. In last place, Los Angeles can be found with 15 points. Most of the league is bunched in the middle with 21-25 points.

Coach Quinn is amazing. I think that’s the best summary. After the team was playing like they were in high school, he cracked the whip to make the professional athletes remember that they are professional athletes. He’s the opposite of Alain Vigneault. He knows how to use younger players (and actually talk to them) and if you aren’t pulling your weight, you get benched to think about what you are doing. Vigneault let the veterans get away with murder and it stifled the team.

The rookies are starting to get comfortable and it’s a blast to see it happen. Jimmy Vesey is always getting work done. Neil Pionk is having a blast. Philip Chytil has broken the seal and scored once in each of the last 4 games. Brett Howden is getting better and better. The team is still in flux though. Zuccarello and Buchnevich (who was on a roll) are hurt. Skjei and Smith swing from good to garbage seemingly by the minute. It looks like Namestnikov has finally woken up and Shattenkirk is doing a fine job on defense (it’s clear why he was picked up last season and after his terrible injury it’s great to see him play). Lias Andersson hasn’t scored yet and is looking to get the breakthrough that Chytil just struck. Ryan Spooner was traded for Ryan Strome from Ottawa so we’ll see how that works out. Vinni Lettieri was sent back to Hartford to cook some more. Jesper Fast has no show stopper moments. In fact, he’s oddly cold with only 1 goal and 6 assists so far.

The internet scuttlebutt has raised this question from this new success streak: Where are we in the rebuilding process? This usually takes years and it’s awful in the beginning. Hayes and Kreider are playing very well (Hayes, at 25 is starting to hit his stride) and they will have targets on their back for other teams to trade for him. Hayes especially as he’s young and his contract ends this year. If they end up doing well, they get no more early draft selections for next year and that’ll affect the rebuild.

These two guys are what I’d consider the old guards of the Rangers. They are the players the rookies can follow as mentors in their new NHL careers. You need a core to build a team around, but will management jettison them (for something worthwhile instead of letting them go for nothing) in favor of looking for the future (which hasn’t been done in years, instead paying out the nose for quick “fixes”), or re-sign them to use as the team core to build around? Skjei was signed to a big contract and he’s not living up to expectations but I find it hard to believe they’ll give up on him.

If they can maintain this kind of success it’d be nuts to break up the team. But I have no idea if it’s possible. It’s so early in the season and a big factor when we get closer to the playoffs is how healthy the team is. Henrik is playing incredibly well but is he going to get burned out playing as much as he has? Georgiev has played a handful of games so far. He isn’t going to get better by sitting it out all the time and leaning on Henrik like he’s still 26 years old is dangerous.

This could break in any direction has each week passes. They could collapse again or they could make the playoffs. A cup run would be something for the history books. Or they skid somewhere to the middle of the league and another round of drastic trades are made come February.

Regardless of what happens, I’ll be watching it unfold.

The Darkest Winter Update 13

The Darkest Winter

Don’t give up. Books have a million lives. It doesn’t matter if no one has read it yet and it has been out a while. It’s always new to the reader encountering it for the first time. And be patient. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Expecting it to will only lead to disappointment.                  –David Gaughran

This is good advice for me to keep in mind as I look at my sales report for November. My marketing reach since launch has gotten to everyone in my immediate circle. Breaking out of that circle is incredibly difficult. My slow sales show that and I’ve learned some things in the past month that I’m going to share now.

The Darkest Winter is published through Amazon. Since the start, I never considered selling the paperback through anyone but Amazon. With their Extended Distribution channel, I thought I’d be covered well enough for any bookstores, libraries, schools to buy the book if they wanted it (and that would be a serious marketing win if I got sales through this channel. I haven’t but knowing that the book is so widely available has been reassuring). For the ebook edition, I planned on keeping it exclusive to Kindle for 3-6 months. That 3 months is getting very close and that brings me to the point of this post.

Amazon’s Extended Distribution is garbage. There is no way to tell if a book has sold through that channel until after it has shipped. Amazon’s printers may not be the one who prints the book for this channel so there is no telling what the quality is. It’s possible that your book won’t be available to the distributors in this channel (like Baker and Taylor) for some unknown glitch that Amazon is “working on.”  It’s basically impossible to find out what’s going on with this channel it’s so buried and shady. The royalties are garbage, almost to the point where it isn’t worth selling it.

I found all of this out because last month I organized a deal with the North Haledon Library for their book club. I huge sale for me and the order was placed through Baker and Taylor on Oct. 16th. Three weeks later, nothing had happened. I could not find out why. So I organized to get the book directly from Amazon using my Author Discount. So the books are coming to me next week, I’ll hand them off to the library and I’ll actually make some money in the process. It’s mindboggling stupid how this has worked.

You know what else is crazy? When you dig around the help pages on CreateSpace, there is a line that says this….I’m paraphrasing but this is the message:

ProTip: Don’t use our Extended Distribution feature. Use another company, they are way better at it.

So I’ve deselected that one in my account because it doesn’t do anything. This has led me to do research on other companies and I’m on the fence about getting the paperback available wider. A decent amount of re-setup is necessary and I’m not sure if it’s worth it. For example, if I wanted to get the book onto Barnes and Noble shelves I gotta get an appropriate price barcode and another ISBN barcode on there, and submit all sorts of stuff to B&N and wait 3 months for a yes or no.

Since I know I’m going to expand the reach of the ebook, that’s more in the forefront for me. Get it on Kobo, iBook, Nook, Google Play, etc. That’s going to happen I just need to decide when. Amazon Select (a minimum 90-day commitment) gets the ebook into their Kindle Unlimited and borrowing program which nets money on page reads. I had over 3.000 in September and about 1,000 in October and much less this month so I’m not sure if it’s worth keeping TDW exclusive for another 90 days. The royalties for this service are super weird as it’s based on the month’s allowance (I think September was around $22 million) that is divided up by all page reads. I haven’t seen any royalties from that yet.

So, come January or March, the ebook will be available basically everywhere.

So while this has been frustrating, I’m really close to 100 books sold. That’s awesome, to say the least. 9 fantastic reviews are on Amazon right now and I’d love more. I’m going to think local for now I think. With the success of the NH library sale, I’m going to check around for other book clubs. Plus I’m going to speak to the group at NH so that’ll be fun and a great way to get the word out further. I think this could be the path to greater success.

I gotta get the gears spinning on this and we’ll see what happens.

Speaking Out Loud

The Darkest Winter

Last Thursday I did my first public speaking gig at the Hasbrouck Heights Library for my book, The Darkest Winter. There were around 20 people in attendance and I’m happy with how it went.

To my surprise, I wasn’t nervous going into it, or at the event. I attribute a lot of that to my writer’s group, where I’ve essentially been speaking to a group of people almost every week for the past 4 years. I’ve become much more confident in speaking with people in a group setting and because we talk in depth about topics, I’m also better at organizing my thoughts and preparing what I want to say. It also helped that I know this content inside and out so my confidence in what I was speaking about couldn’t have been higher.

I was the 6th presenter and while my intro was a bit sloppy (I forgot some of the smooth lines I wanted to say so things came out a bit disjointed) I think I did really well with the segment I read. I chose Chapter 22 which is my favorite section of the book. It’s one of the shortest chapters with a lof of suspense and there is a lot of dialog which made it easier to read aloud. I also think it’s one of the strongest examples of the quality of my writing so as a preview to get people interested, it checks all the boxes. It felt engaging, I got a lot of compliments, and I met some great people. I’d call it a success.

I’m most surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was more of a community talent showcase than a focused meeting for author engagement so I didn’t get to speak as much about the book and the writing process as I would have liked to but I think it was a great initial step to do more speaking events in the future. So far it’s one of the best elements of being an author I’ve experienced so far. I wonder if it made me feel so good because it fed into my narcissistic side since it was all about me and my work, but maybe it’s not so bad to get your ego some attention once in a while.