Bogged Down, but Still Fighting On…

Magehunter is finished with substantive editing and an ARC has been released. Now comes the glorious task of asking others for reviews of the work, in hopes that someone of notable nameliness will supply a small quote to include on the cover. Got a few feelers out for that, and crossing my fingers.

Priesthunter is ready to begin Substantive editing, just awaiting a schedule and directives from the publisher and the array of editors.

Roguehunter is crawling along slowly. I’ve written two scenes in the current chapter and I’m ready to rip them out and set fire to them; they don’t work. Still, have to get it done and begin plotting for Kinghunter.

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Magehunter Cover

The cover for my newest work has been complete for a while, along with the cover for books II and III. You’ll have to wait for those, but I can show you the cover for Magehunter.

Coming, this summer. Magehunter, Book I of the Magehunter Saga. Questions, or comments? Please drop those at fansofjmessick@gmail.com. Now to finish up Book III and get into Book IV.

Ant-Man and The Wasp

I went to the movies to see this, fully expecting Marvel to continue their rather disturbing trend towards silliness. I was very pleasantly surprised, as they changed things up a bit, moving their percentages back towards what made their early movies so good.

Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of silly moments in this movie, but they don’t overwhelm, or even intrude on the main plot at all, unlike Ragnarok, Deadpool II, or Infinity War.

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Once again, truly remarkable special effects were added, but only to support the story and bring the comic page into live-action. The switched camera to show tiny vehicles, or buildings, plus the superimposed large size Ant-Man, as above, were rendered and placed in the movie to push the story forward. This is something Marvel has always been outstanding at.
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Paul Rudd’s part was a bit of a disappointment, only in the really tired story of being under house arrest and having to get out to be the hero. Marvel moved towards stereotyped sequences here, but it was only a minor annoyance at worst.

Evangeline Lilly was spectacular as The Wasp. She was driven, creative, heroic, and deferential towards Ant-Man, until she had to save him. The emotions were perfectly played and the process was not, in any way, a stretch. Again, it may have been a bit stereotyped of a emotion changing process, but it worked.
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This was a great one-off movie to pick people up after the ending of Infinity War. With the big baddie in Infinity War destroying half of the universe’s inhabitants, the fans needed a more light-hearted movie to pick them up again. Marvel delivered.

Then Marvel stabbed us in the heart, with their credits scene. Ant-Man is in the Quantum Zone and his communications with the outside world are cut off, as Hank Pym and The Wasp, along with Janet Van Dyne were turned to ash because of the events in Infinity War. Scott Lang, Ant-Man is stranded in the Quantum Zone, with no guidance back.

I’m eagerly awaiting the next Marvel movie, just wondering how they will stitch everything together with the Infinity War effects unresolved.

The Process Continued

So, the first round of edits came back, yahoo! So I dove right in.

Now, I have some experience with how Pandamoon Publishing goes through this process, but none with anyone/anywhere else. Pandamoon’s editors sent me my book back, with comments along the side, and a brief of notes about the book and ideas they would like me to consider. I considered them, thoroughly, and as with Knights of the Shield, I took a good 75% of their suggestions. I went through the comments along the sides of the manny and took a whopping 90% of the ideas there and implemented them.

Here’s me hoping my decisions aren’t the wrong ones, but I feel I’m doing the right thing. The manny, according to my editors, is already pretty tight and nothing major in terms of rewriting is really necessary, so that was a relief. However, they wanted me to consider renaming characters; two specifically. Now, my excuse is that one of the characters won’t last past book III and the other takes a less important role after Book II, so I opted to keep things the same.

I understand what my editors are getting at, but I feel there is wiggle room here, and I’m going to stand for my characters.

So, awaiting round two, if necessary, and so forth. Will check back in soon.

Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

I waited so long to post this, for two reasons. One, I wanted it out a bit after the movie to avoid spoiler issues. Secondly, and more importantly (hanging head) Marvel missed the mark and I’m still trying to recover.

Let’s start with the good…
Tony Stark vs Doctor Strange in snappy patter and Type-A one-upmanship is outstanding. It was simply the best part of this movie for me.
The Hulk got his ass kicked and now he’s scared. Love it. (I know people are equating it to male sexuality issues, but keeping things simple…the big bad Hulk got his ass kicked.
The fight scene in the park. Beautiful cinematography. Fast paced and just well done. This is closer to what I expected, with a great story involved.
The final fight (part of it) takes place in Wakanda, so we get to see their advanced tech.
Spider-Man’s part was beautifully portrayed. However, I despise the extra legs from Stark. I’m a traditionalist.
Heroic acts. Thor willing to sacrifice himself to create Stormbringer is what Super-Heroes are all about.

Bad things…and this pains me a lot.
Too much humor. This started with Ragnarok and even carried over into DP2. Marvel has always done a good job of mixing in an appropriate amount of humor, to balance the action and drama. Ragnarok, DP2, and Infinity War threatened to just drop off into silly. I understand Deadpool is supposed to be silly, but that’s another post.
Marvel came out in late 2016, early 2017 saying they had decided to make Infinity War one movie, instead of the trending operations like The Hobbit being three movies and The last Harry Potter book being two movies. I guess I fell for it, because Infinity War is definitely two movies.
No sideline plot for Cap, or Black Widow. They were a big part of the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and with them maybe not hanging around after Infinity War 2, perhaps they deserved more side story and some other characters deserve less.

Don’t get me wrong though. I like this movie. The good far outweighs the bad, but I fear for future movies if they cannot get their formulas back to what I feel made their movies second to none for Super-Hero action. Still, this picture was light-years better than DC’s movies so far. Well, Wonder Woman was better than their usual offerings.

Looking forward to Ant Man & The Wasp

Magehunter has officially entered EDITING!!! Check out the Pandablog at pandamoonpub.com I will update everyone on Magehunter on the 20th of Jun.
Feel free to drop me a note at fansofjmessick.com and we can discuss things.

This Saturday…

This Saturday, at Dead Tree Books on the south side of San Antonio, Yours Truly will be selling, and signing Knights of the Shield.
2PM Saturday 5/12/2018

5645 S Flores St #105, San Antonio, TX 78214

‘Mon out!

Wizard’s World!

Aug 23rd-Aug 26th in Chicago is….

And Pandamoon will be there, with yours truly, Elgon Williams, Christine Gabriel, and Meg Bonney. And that’s just the ones committed so far. More may be coming.