Cherished Blogfest 2016: A trifecta of treasured things

Last year I shared my love for comic books, and books as one of the three posts I did for this. Unfortunately when I did that, I was in the middle of painting and remodeling my room making the pictures look sloppy, and unorganized.  In some ways this is almost an amendment to last years post. Given for this year my cherished object, is my bookshelves.



I went through and mounted the brackets and shelving myself. Which is part of the reason I cherish them, ignoring what is on them for the moment.  Part of it is a sense of pride in at how they came out.The first reason of three I chose for the Cherished Blogfest.

While there are some knickknacks that I do enjoy having. Some of which are a clear representation of geekier side. Take the Darth Vader Bobble-head seen early on in the first gif for example. I remember getting that my junior year of high school, when I went to New York for a robotics competition. Others are more representative of my love of strange, dark things.The various sized skulls seen in both gifs, represent my love of strange, dark things.  Even some things like the Jack Skellingtion Bobble-head, and the small BeetleJuice picture are a balanced representation of both things. That is the second reason for my choice.

Then you have things like the three larger framed pictures in the second gif. I remember getting those at the first comic convention I went to. While that was a blast, I think that was when I realized I enjoyed being a nerd/geek. That I felt no shame in being one, which made me feel a sense of peace. I believe that is why I treasure them, and the memories. This it the final reason out of the three.

Originally I planned to do a bookshelf_tour_pt2video style tour, but realized two things the more I thought about. The first being, that could make a few hour video in its own right. While the second on is, my current WordPress plan doesn’t allow me to upload videos. Of course it didn’t help that I shot the first video upside down. Upside to that mistake, is I found out how to make gifs.


Hmm… that is interesting.

The idea for writing about this came from reading an article written by Neil Gaiman. You can read the article here.

While I may not have read much of Neil Gaiman’s novels, or graphic novels yet. However, I do have tremendous respect for him. He makes several points in his article, including one about having no limits on what he read as a child. Some of the other things he discusses in his article, on banned books, the importance of the libraries, the concept of classifying books, and freedom of speech.

Honestly, I agree with most of his statements. While books may be the subject of controversy, and banning. Even the concept of medium could be argued to some extent.

Personally I think books, are small, portable gateways to other worlds no matter the medium. No group, or person should have control on what is read excluding the creators (artists and writers). I exclude them since everything they make is meant to be imaginative, for the most part.

People young, and old should read what they like. Young adult literature is a great example of something that has a questionable age range. Honestly I have seen people who have past what would be thought to be the target market for young adult literature, reading things that fit that genre. Of course that includes myself. Restricting what a child can read, because it you don’t agree with it, or it depicts something you see as offensive is almost redundant. Especially in a world where you can search for anything online.

I’m curious to see what are your thoughts on the article. Do you agree? Disagree? 

Cherished Blogfest: final day of treasured objects




image image image image image image image image





image image image image

Are Essential lists worth reading?

The more essential list I see, the less I more I question their bias. I understand that making an essential list of books, no matter the size. The smaller ones I think, since you have to narrow it down from possibly several hundred or several thousand, depending on the subject. Some of list are clearly meant to be strict, limiting it to a genre of writing or a publisher. That at least makes sense to an extant. Of course others are much less strict with their content.

Take for example the list made by . While it does note well known works by J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle,H.G. Wells, and many others. Some of the works and writers they mention, I have never heard of.  Of course other lists, like the one made by for example have some books in common.Both have The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark twain on their list, as well as Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. There are a few more books that are on both lists, but several that are placed on only one of the lists. They may share several authors in common, but what book(s) they choose with the author vary.

Even when they narrow the genre, or medium they still share this problem. Since I have a major love of graphic novels, and comic books I will use that as a genre, ignoring the publisher and category completely. For this I stuck to list of 50, since it makes things even so to speak. I will be using two lists for this, since the other ones I have found refer to them.The lists I’m using are from , .The contrasting thing between these two lists is one focuses on graphic novels as a whole, while the one from forbidden planet focuses on superheros for the most part. Between the two of them they have about a dozen or so novels in common including Watchman by Alan Moore, Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, Violent Cases by Neil Gaiman, and a handful of others. Outside of the ones they have in common, they are different lists despite sharing a similar focus.

It amazes and slightly frustrates me that people value essential lists, no matter how reputable the creator of the list may be. I guess in the end it all boils down to personal taste. Yet the question remains, why are essential lists used as resources? Have you ever used an essential lists to get into genre or do you go by personal taste? What are your thoughts on essential lists? Are they useful or useless?

Overly productive weekend and a question.

After almost 4,000 words, Friday split between my current projects Rise (death and a dragon), and Anarchy. Along with an additional 2,500 words over the past two days, I’m feeling a case of the Mondays.

monday gif

Hopefully tomorrow will be better and my spark of creativity and inspiration will return with a torrent of thoughts. It would help if this strange sense of exhaustion will be gone as well, and the hiccups I can’t seem to get rid of today, for some reason.

Now on the question. Despite the exhaustion of my body, I couldn’t shake a thought today. There is old phrase, that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is true than why are some people so set against counting graphic novels and comic books as actual stories. It doesn’t make sense to me. What are your thoughts? Should graphic novels be counted as complete literary novels, or should they not?  Or are they something else entirely?

Personally I think they should be, but I have some bias as someone who grew up reading comic books, and watching the shows that were inspired by them.  I’m curious to see what other people think on this matter. Please comment below, what your thoughts are. Are you against this? Are you for it? Or something else?


batman thinking

I have begun to realize as much as I could make my main focus, 1000 pages and explore the possibilities i have hinted at I write,  It would be doubtful a publisher would take a chance a on it as one book. Especially since I’m not a well known author.  It feels like it would be better to split the novel into three or four parts, with a manuscript of around 300-350 pages a piece. Since I may have inadvertently written the chapter earlier today, that could be used for it. Despite not being near 300 pages yet, but I have yet to space out everything properly. Already at close to 250 pages, once I space out the 30+ chapters it will be there. It doesn’t help that I have hinted at lands across the sea, and another species of bipedal Anthropomorphic race. Along with so much more. Which may lead to a manuscript of close to 800- to 1000 pages, which is probably not a good idea for a new author. Maybe I will write it all at once than break it down into three or four pieces and make it a saga  instead of some giant standalone book.

As to my other current project, Anarchy. it is going well. My inspiration for that comes in spontaneous and random waves, which is frustrating at times. Since I’m more focused on turning it into a graphic novel, I’m writing it like one.I  guess I can’t hide the fact, that I grew up on old superheroro shows. One might say I was geeked at birth.

After 9 days in June…



Flea market finds

Well after going to a large outdoor/indoor flea over the weekend, I began to realize a large majority of my books come from flea markets, discount stores, or library sales.I rarely purchase a book when it first comes out in hardback or paperback.  Honestly I have no problem buying books that are used but in good condition. Especially if they are cheap, haha. I would say a large majority of writers, are constant readers and surround themselves with books. Personally I love get lost in a fictional world. It gives you a sense and feeling  of exploration without ever leaving your home. Maybe that is why books have been around so long as a medium of entertainment.  Despite the fact that the availability and delivery of the medium has changed, as technology progresses.

Below are some of the purchases I made Saturday.

flea market findsflea market finds 2

Has anyone else picked up good books from flea markets? Library Sales? Discount stores? Comment below if you have. I will admit to a healthy curiosity, to see if anyone does the same.

Review of Marvel:The Characters and Their Universe

Marvel: The Characters and Their UniverseMarvel: The Characters and Their Universe by Michael Mallory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a whole the book is informative on some of Marvels most popular characters and teams. In addition it provides a lot of the history of Marvel to be one the largest comic book companies of the day.

If I had to say anything bad about the book is it needs to include spree history of some of the lesser known characters marvel has. Some of which are currently part of Marvel’s phase two or phase three movies plans as or some of the show they are making with Netflix. Most of the movie characters outside of maybe black panther and the inhumans who I would consider lesser known to the general public should have some information in here in my opinion. Outside of Daredevil who I would say is decently well known to the public who has the history of his creation in the book, it lacks characters like Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and the rest of the characters who make The Defenders.

Tumblr settup

As I mentioned in last night’s post, I wanted to set up a tumblr that will be similar to this wordpress blog. The tumblr blog is called craftingstrangenewworlds.   For those who follow this and have a literature themed (books, writing, reviews), please follow me there as well. Of course since tumblr is more visual, it will allow me to blog about other things I love or have a passion for. This will include books (obviously),technology, comic books, fantasy/sci-fi art, cars, cosplaying, and of course F.I.R.S.T.

Also if anyone knows how to put tumblr in the social widget, would you please tell me or post a link on how to.