beautiful

Randomness for 9/26

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1) A die to cure writer’s block. It jingles when you roll it, so that has to be worth $45.

2) How many continents are there? Video.

3) Joe Lansdale beats the hell out of his son-in-law (in a martial arts exhibition). Video. As always, I’m a little dubious about this stuff, but it’s still cool to watch.

4) This is odd. via @mizkit on Twitter

5) Beautiful, anonymous paper sculptures being left at Scottish Museums.

6) Soon-to-be Father of the Year photoshops Ewoks into family photos to convince kids they are real.

7) A fantastic new webcomic.

Randomness for 9/4

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1) A visual compendium of notable haircuts in popular music.

2) The origins of Superman’s villains, done in the style of Little Nemo In Slumberland>.

3) Amazing manhole covers in Japan.

4) Lord of the Rings in Lego (via Rose Fox)

5) The Silmarillion, bound and illustrated by hand.

6) The many difficult decisions around crossing a street in Los Angeles.

7) “There is widespread belief in a warm and comforting story which states the horse is a gentle herbivore.” From the description of Deadly Equines: The Shocking True Story of Meat-Eating and Murderous Horses by CuChullaine O’Reilly (seen via Ray Radlein)

Quick Friday post

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1. I have promised a thread for spoilery discussions of the Twenty Palaces books. I have not forgotten this promise.

2. Today is the day I travel around Seattle (by bus!) signing book stock in stores. Fun! Okay, not. Actually, it’ll be a good time to do some reading and thinking about item 3.

3. My agent got back to me with some notes about A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark. They seem very straightforward but will require a bit of fixing to address. Must turn on brain.

4. My agent has also shamed me into replacing my phone. Let us not speak of this further.

5. The Livestrong calorie counter is making me rethink my devotion to kielbasa and peanut butter.

6. Booster Gold is a terrific character.

7. My email inbox has been exploding for weeks. I’m not sure what to do about it, but I have to do something.

8. Last night was date night for my wife and me. Unfortunately, our sitter never showed (don’t know why) so we ended up cooking some quick, sorta-crappy food and then rushing out to Elliott Bay Marina to see “Cirque du Sail” a couple who travel around the world on their sailboat, with their kids, and pay their way by doing acrobatic shows in the rigging for donations. Last night was the final Seattle show but they’ll be in San Francisco in a few days. They’re very good. Check it out if you can.

9. One the way to the Marina last night, my wife turned to me and said “Thanks for coming to see this thing with me.” I said: “Hey, it’s Date Night! We just had bad food and now we’re going to see some unlikely entertainment. The only difference is that we’re dragging the boy behind us in a little red wagon.” Date night, everybody.

10. Time to get out of here and start signing. Have a great holiday weekend, Holiday Weekend People.

Is this the French cover for Child of Fire?

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I don’t know, because it popped up while I was looking at Goodreads.

What do you think?

Randomness for 8/20

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1) Interview of a One-Year-Old Child. Video. Way funnier than it sounds.

2) Moebius did concept art for the movie WILLOW. Check out the art design that could have been.

3) Astonishing bike stunts in abandoned industrial facility. Video. Music’s nice, too.

4) Better Book Titles.

5) Everything you need to know about the video game industry in one graphic.

6) The 10 Most Brutal Moments in ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’!

7) A steampunk apartment.

The trailer script revealed

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As promised, here is the actual script I wrote for the trailer. You can see the similarities and the differences.

What’s that? You missed my post last night with the full trailer embedded? You hate Vimeo? Well, here’s your chance to watch it on YouTube:

Anyway, you can see there are quite a few differences, to put it mildly. The guys at Wyrd told me straight out to write whatever I wanted–to not hold back at all–and they would figure out what they could or couldn’t do.

Well, dangling from the hole in the world wasn’t going to happen, and neither was the Molotov cocktail. There were some other things that were shot but didn’t make the final cut, like Catherine’s only line.

And there was other stuff that the guys at Wyrd just grabbed and ran with, like the floating storm, the confrontation with the guy drawing the sigil, and the final shot, which the director rightly changed from a punch to the ghost knife. Not to mention, thank god they changed the way Annalise is introduced. ::slaps forehead::

A note about formatting: This isn’t “correct” script formatting, because Christ this is a blog post and it’s 10:50 at night and I don’t want to go nuts making a fake screenplay. Also, I cheated the format for my own purposes by using two columns–why not, right? I didn’t have to follow any formatting rules! It was my money!

Plus, for those reading this on my main blog, my nifty WordPress theme puts a gray bg on part of it. Just pretend that didn’t happen and we’ll both be happier.

For folks who haven’t read a script before, character names are ALL CAPS the first time they’re introduced. The INT or EXT mark a new location in the script, and making the first few words in a line ALL CAPS also designates a new location or shot, esp in a montage like this.

Here’s the script behind the cut. Continue reading

The full Twenty Palaces trailer is now live

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Previously, I’d posted a teaser trailer for my Twenty Palaces books, but we’re finally ready to share the whole thing. This version includes all the special effects, characters and short scenes from Circle of Enemies (not spoilery), Catherine Little, Charles Hammer, the ghost knife…

And of course, Annalise doing some damage.

Here you go:

Full Twenty Palaces Trailer from Harry Connolly on Vimeo.

Swear to god, the guys at Wyrd did a fantastic job on this. Above and beyond, really. If you follow that link to their site, you can find out more about their award-winning genre documentaries, including H.P. LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN.

Hey, if you like the video, please do let other people know about it. Almost forgot: if I can work out the formatting, I’ll post the original trailer script tomorrow, so folks can see the differences and how things change.

Randomness for 7/30

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1) The largest Hot Wheels track ever. Four years in the making and it’s already sold for millions.

2) The 50 most delicious foods in the world. Points off for “Texas Barbecue Pork.”

3) More on joke Amazon.com reviews.

4) Spock is not impressed.

5) The Wesley Crusher Pullover Collection.

6) Dr. Strange villains reimagined.

7) Six pieces of technology SF movies forget about.

Didn’t I promise a teaser trailer today?

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Well, I have it right here and ready for you. What’s more, I promised that there would be a cool announcement to go with it, didn’t I?

First, here’s the teaser trailer:

Twenty Palaces Teaser Trailer (not HD) from Harry Connolly on Vimeo.

That one isn’t HD, but if your connection can handle it and you want to go full screen, there’s a High Def version as well.

Honest to Pikachu, I love this teaser trailer. It’s gorgeous and gory, just as my editor said. What’s more, from what I’ve seen of the full trailer, it’s going to be even more incredible. The guys at Wyrd are doing a fantastic job. (The sound effects make my hair stand on end!)

What about that announcement? Well, now that my editor has dropped the announcement over at Suvudu, I feel fine posting it here: As a short-term promotion for my upcoming Circle of Enemies, Del Rey has dropped the price for the Kindle edition of Child of Fire to only 99 cents!

That’s right. For a limited time (don’t ask me how limited because I’m not at all certain) Child of Fire will be available for just one dollar. What’s more, Game of Cages has had two dollars knocked off the ebook price.

As I write this, prices in Apple’s iBookstore and Sony eReader have been changed, but I can’t link to them. Google Bookstore is more accomodating. Child of Fire | Game of Cages. Unfortunately, as I write this, Barnes & Noble hadn’t implemented the price change yet. B&N, why do you have to be so hard on me?

Two more things to say: First of all, this isn’t the last cool thing happening today. See next rock.

Second of all, I’m tremendously happy that Del Rey (and everyone at Random House, too) chose my books for this promotion. Really, they could have given this push to any number of authors, and it shows their confidence in the Twenty Palaces books that it’s happening to me.

So, if you wouldn’t mind maybe spreading the word a little bit? It’s only a short time offer, but poor Ray Lilly could use a couple extra readers before book three comes out.

Added later: It seems that only the U.S. version of Amazon.com that have lowered the prices. Readers outside the U.S. should check that Google link, though. It might be what you’re looking for.

Randomness for 7/11

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1) Six Beloved 80s Toys With Bizarrely Horrifying Origin Stories

2) A writer tithes to a charity he believes in.

3) Printing in three dimensions, with chocolate.

4) The entire plot of Harry Potter on a single poster.

5) Gundam Karate Battle! Video. Nicely done and more cinematic than the usual fare.

6) Saruman trolling the fellowship. Video. ::ahem:: LOL

7) How to make a book light a light out of an old book. via ardentdelirium