Your daily Ralph~7/29/13

Back from Pulp Fest

I returned from Pulp fest tonight where I had a fantastic time meeting and shaking hands with some of the finest human beings on the planet. Everyone was very cool, and we had a blast talking and hanging out. The panels I attended were fantastic. Hearing people read their own books in their own voices was a treat. Gotta say I loved it there. Columbus is a nice city, too. It's clean and quiet. I walked around on Friday a little bit and checked out a few things. All in all it was a great event. I also went to the American Motorcyclists Association Hall of Fame Museum. While it was nice to see, lets just say I scratched it off my bucket list and never have to return again. After seeing the Barber museum several years ago in Birmingham, Al. and Wheels through time in Tennessee as well as the new museum in Newburgh called Motorcyclepedia. All three of those were MUCH better than the AMA museum, which really surprised me. But I did manage to see it which was great anyway.

You know what else is great? Besides Pulp Fest I mean? My new book The Cagliostro Chronicles. It's creating a buzz, and a good one. if you haven't checked it out yet do it today, especially if you like sci-fi and space opera. You're going to enjoy this! Below is the kindle link . Of course it's also available as a paperback with that amazing Gustav Barta cover!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cagliostro-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00E3BFJYO/ref=la_B008M0PW6W_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375139370&sr=1-1


http://www.amazon.com/Cagliostro-Chronicles-Ralph-Angelo-Jr/dp/0615854427/ref=sr_1_4_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375141694&sr=1-4

Ralph's Rants Does Interviews Welcomes Will Murray!

Will Murray Interview

 

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of ‘Ralph’s Rants does interviews’. Ralph Angelo here, and this week is going to be a real treat as we have a very special guest, one of the most prolific and well recognized names in fiction and adventure books and writing,  Let’s all welcome Will Murray! Hi Will, how are you?

 

As always, I am crazy busy, editing my new Doc Savage novel, writing background articles for Sanctum Books’ pulp reprints and producing audiobooks for Radio Archives’ line of Will Murray Pulp Classics. It’s a tough life...

 

Will, let’s get right to it, what made you decide to be a writer?

 

My earliest ambition was to be a comic book artist. I was a big fan of Marvel Comics in the 1960s, when they were great. When around 1968-69, I discovered Doc Savage, The Shadow, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. P. Lovecraft, my interests shifted to the older universe of pulp magazines, and my focus changed from drawing to writing. So I begin writing short stories in the pulp vein, and then articles for Doc Savage fanzines in the early 1970s, which was the start of my being a published author. Over time, I graduated from the fanzines to real publishing, although I've never ceased contributing to pulp fan magazines. You might say I became a writer because I was a lousy artist!

 

I first became aware of you with your writing in the Destroyer series of books, probably my all-time favorite series. Was this your first series that you wrote?

 

My Destroyers were my first published novels, but prior to starting it, I had written Python Isle in 1979. So the first novel I wrote was Doc Savage novel. It just took 11 years to get into print. I did try a Nick Carter, Killmaster for Charter Books. I submitted three chapters of “The Infallible Assassins” somewhere around 1982 or so. The editor was interested , but they had plenty of other writers working for them then.  I wanted to introduce a female Killmaster, called a Killmistress. They were very interested in that idea, but nothing ever came of it. Then came the opportunity to ghost a Destroyer, which turned into 40 Destroyers. I loved writing Remo and Chiun. I still have about 20 or 30  Destroyer plots I never got around to using. It’s a shame that series went to hell after my departure.

 

I know you’ve written just about everything under the sun out there as far as classic pulp characters go. Can you list the one’s you’ve written over the years?

 

That's a long list! Of course there's Doc, The Green Hornet, The Spider, The Avenger, The Lone Ranger, Honey West, The Phantom, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man,  even Wonder Woman. And many others. I think the only major ones I haven't written yet are The Shadow and Tarzan.

 

You are well known right now as the new, or rather current Doc Savage Scribe, usually writing as Kenneth Robeson, a nom de plume that Lester Dent himself used to write the Doc series, as an established guy, how does it feel to be writing under a pen name, especially one so famous?

 

Actually, almost all of my 60-some books have been under other bylines. To me, the name  Kenneth Robeson is a magical one. I think if you write Doc Savage, that's the byline you use. The one exception was Skull Island, but that was a special case. I wasn't writing in the Robeson or Lester Dent style. As a practical matter, if I didn't use the house name, the byline would be Will Murray & Lester Dent––not necessarily in that order. That's a little clumsy, so Robeson works well. But I’m fine with writing under pen names.

 

I’ve read many of your Doc novels, including the most recent, ‘Skull Island’ Which of your new series is your personal favorite?

 

It's always tough to pick a favorite of the novels you've written. Looking back, I thought Python Isle is very special. It's a classic Doc Savage adventure written from a vintage 1934 outline, with a lost race background. It was also my first novel. So it’s among my favorite Docs. However, White Eyes may be a better book, and I always love pitting Doc against supercriminals with special super-scientific weapons. Of the recent books, I really love The Desert Demons, although it may be among the least favorite of readers. The reason I like it so much, other than its wildness and that it was my return novel, is that it contains a lot of authentic Lester Dent chapters from 1934 and ’35. It is my most Dentian Doc novel of the current run. Reviewers are calling Skull Island one of the greatest Docs ever written, and I can’t fault that opinion. But it stands by itself, and is more of a proud accomplishment than a personal favorite. Horror in Gold is fun because it explores the world of Doc Savage in detail–his HQ, Hidalgo Trading Company, etc. The Infernal Buddha takes the series to China. Death’s Dark Domain fills in a missing piece of the original series. There isn’t a Wild Adventure I’m not happy with––so far...

 

Let’s talk about Doc Savage himself for a moment, was he your favorite pulp character? Did you grow up reading his adventures? What draws you to him as a character?

 

I bought my first Doc Savage novel in 1969, when I was 15 years old. That was Dust of Death. I was hooked. So I've been reading Doc for over 40 years. And yes, he’s my favorite. No one else comes close, although I have very high opinions of The Shadow and the Spider, as well as Operator #5, Bill Barnes and The Whisperer.

 

Let me ask you this: Is Doc Savage the greatest adventure character ever created and if so why?

 

To me, Doc Savage is the greatest superhero of all time. He’s a wonderful concept. It's hard to say what appeals to me about him now, since the character and the writing style of Lester Dent are entwined in my consciousness.  To me, a great deal of the appeal of Doc Savage is not simply the characters or the storylines, it's the infectious appeal of the writing. I love to read and write pulp writing, and Lester Dent had a special flavor all his own.I think when you're talking about the last hundred years, Doc Savage is the ultimate adventure character. Partly that's because he's a combination of so many great characters that came before––I'm referring to Tarzan of the Apes, Nick Carter, Sherlock Holmes, and others. He’s one of the first true pulp supermen, and therefore the inspiration for Superman, Batman, the Fantastic Four, and so many other great cultural icons. I like to say that the Doc Savage series was the fountainhead from which a lot of our media superheroes flow. It's impossible to underestimate the importance and influence of Doc Savage upon the heroes of the 21st century. That's not even counting how good the stories are. Witness the fact that 85 years after his debut, Doc Savage novels are still being reprinted, and new ones are being written.

 

You seem to be writing 100% of the time, you recently released a new book that appears to be an ode to the western, care to talk about that?

 

Wordslingers, An Epitaph for the Western, started as an article on the pulp Western  phenomenon back in 2001. Over time, the article grew and grew and grew until I had a young book. The book kept growing because I was so fascinated by this untold story of the pulp  Western magazines, the writers, editors and agents who kept the genre going through decades and decades of evolution. It’s like a Ken Burns documentary in book firm. People are responding very well to this book, not because it's about Western pulps, but because it's about pulp writers and the whole pulp phenomenon. Even if you're not interested in Westerns, this is a fascinating read because the story is told through quotes by the many writers, editors, agents etc. who lived through the pulp era, and made it so popular and vital. People have commented––and I mean here other writers have commentated––that this book will teach you a lot about how to make a living as a writer from a very personal perspective. I am very proud of this book.

 

I noticed you’ve been talking about your next Doc Savage novel recently so I have to assume it’s about ready to be published, What can we expect this time?

 

The next Doc is called The Miracle Menace. Originally, this was going to be the 80th anniversary Wild Adventure, complete with a wraparound anniversary cover. But then came Skull Island, which supplanted it. So Miracle Menace was bumped forward a book. This one is very hard to describe. It starts telling the story of an out of work magician called The Great Gulliver, who becomes embroiled with the strange group of telepathic evangelists, amid talk that Christopher Columbus may be alive in 1937. On a parallel track, Doc Savage and his men take their dirigible to Missouri to investigate an old Victorian house that vanishes into thin air every time someone approaches it. These two storylines run parallel for three quarters of the book, until they converge in an amazing unfolding of events. Every time I try to compress this plot into a single sentence, I can't do it. I also don’t want to give away any surprises, for there are many. This one is full of fantastic characters, weird phenomena and unbelievable events. There's never been a Doc Savage novel like it before. Oh, and it’s based on a Lester Dent manuscript set in La Plata, Missouri.

 

Will, how many more Doc novels do you have in you? I’m sure like myself people are hoping that’s an open ended answer.

 

I've been working on plots in anticipation of my next Doc Savage contract, assuming one will be negotiated. I think I have ideas for another 10 books, between Lester Dent outlines and my own ideas. Things like The Sky Corsair. Six Scarlet Scorpions. The Secret of Satan’s Spine. The Sun Terror. Grotto of Spiders, etc. I’m not thinking beyond that, because I don't need to think beyond that right now. I would like to do a return to the Valley of the Vanished story. It would be great to have Doc Savage meet The Shadow. And wouldn't it be interesting if Doc fought The Shadow’s major foe, Shiwan Khan, the Golden Master? So I have plenty of ideas, never fear.

 

Will is there anything else in particular you’d like to let readers know about? Any of your works that you want to push that maybe is lesser known, feel free to do it right here, heck mention any of your books you’d like to see get more recognition.

 

My huge collection of Doc Savage articles, called Writings in Bronze, which is available  from Altus Press and on Amazon.com. This is a compendium of articles I've written on the Man of Bronze over the last 40 years. It's a treasure trove of speculation and information. It's practically an encyclopedia on Doc, except it's not written as an encyclopedia. There’s a lot of great reading there.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1452822549/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=18462685328&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=s&hvrand=2108637531820301432&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_119pdvvcx_e

 

The Radio Archives line of Will Murray’s Pulp Classics–-both audio books and ebooks–-has exceeded all expectations. We’re up to nearly 30 audiobooks now. We just launched G-8 and His Battle Aces and will be stepping up our Spider releases. We’ve released hundreds of ebooks, ranging from The Green Lama to Terror Tales. Check us out at: http://www.radioarchives.com

 

Will, I want to thank you for playing along and doing this review. It was a pleasure to have you here on ‘Ralph’s Rants Does Interviews’ and I look forward to reading what you have coming out next, thanks again!

 

You’re welcome!

 

That does it for another edition of ‘Ralph’s Rants Does Interviews’ Thanks for reading!

 

Your Daily Ralph~7/26/13 Coming to you live from Pulp Fest '13 in beautiful downtown Columbus, Ohio.

I'm here in Pulp fest having a very good time walking around and listening to people I knew by name only before this speak at seminars and doing readings of their latest work. It's been a fun day so far. I've bought a small pile of new books to take home and enjoy.

This is a nice small city. It's clean, it's quiet and judging from today at least, it's not unbearable temperature-wise.

But that being said I don't think I'll ever be a city guy. nice to visit, but give me rolling hills and a decided lack of stop signs or lights. It's kind of a tough thing to put a city guy in the country and a country boy in the city.

Another good thing happened today Pro Se Presents #19 came out. that has a new never befoe seen Torahg the Warrior story in it that actually fits into the novel that came out a few weeks ago.


Torahg was a labor of love for me. It was a story I wanted to tell of survival and revenge.  Here's the link to the main Torahg book on Amazon. This is a character that was probably my favorite to write out of any of them so far, because he is so visceral and savage. he's a man forced into a position he never thjought he would be in, ever. He's made to become something that was so out of the norm for him that it was never ever a consideration.

http://www.amazon.com/Torahg-Warrior-Sword-Vengeance-ebook/dp/B00DPK5NWC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374870686&sr=1-1

And here's a link to Pro Se Presents #19 where you can see a missing chapter of Torahg's life on the road to the throne of Fairandia

Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Se-Presents-Summer-ebook/dp/B00E254EAG/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374873091&sr=1-2

Paperback:  http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Se-Presents-Kevin-Rodgers/dp/1491030372/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374873091&sr=1-3

Your Daily Ralph~7/23/13 What it takes

A little while ago we spoke about what went into creating a novel, specifically the editing that came after the writing was done. Well, there's still more to it than that. Once you have your edits that must be implemented, based on what a totally neutral third party known as the editor recommends, you must start going about implementing them on your novel or short story or whatever.
Now this can be painstaking because there could be parts in there that you really love, but based on what the editor recommends they should go or be changed. Of course you have the final say in most cases, if you don't agree with them or they just don't get what the writer is trying to say its up to the writer to decide to make the change the editor recommended or to ignore that recommendation. It's a fine line. The reason is that if you ignore them, you have to be honest with yourself and ask "If the editor did not 'Get it' will the audience?"  That is a very valid and important question. Think about this, is your editor used to the genre you write in? Are they a great editor but used to editing say romance novel's and you are writing sci-fi? If it's a terminology thing, maybe you have to go into a deeper explanation in your story for those not used to your genre. It's a compromise of sorts but it works out best.

Anyway, beyond editing there's also proofreading that needs to be done after you get the edits back and have them installed as it were. Now you have to go through the book again, looking for grammar and spelling errors. Sometimes during this portion of production you might realize a certain passage could have been clearer. Believe it or not that's pretty important also. The easier it is to understand , the more your target audience will enjoy your story. Sometimes, a passage worded a certain way sounds great the first time you read it after just writing it, but the next time around after you have let it sit a while, it no longer works. Sometimes it's just a matter of moving two words around in a sentence to clear things up. Sometimes it comes to you after the fact in a moment of clarity (I believe that our subconscious is always working on these things when your not completely happy with something.) Steven King once said after you write  a novel to put it away for six months (SIX MONTHS???!!!???) and then come back to it with a completely clear head. While I'm no Steven King and don't allude to be, I think he may be slightly excessive here. But walking away from it for a month or two is fine.

Case in point: Since April of 2012 I have written four novels, including 'Redemption of the Sorcerer' which I started all the way back in 2005. I finished that book up in April of 2012 and felt I had a groove going so I started on 'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance' After I finished Torahg I wrote another Torahg book, an anthology of sorts, which  is a long ways off from being published, but probably will be sometime in the next year or so. After that I wrote the just released 'The Cagliostro Chronicles', my sci-fi adventure novel.  I have to say these three books are all fun reads that every time I look at, I can't believe I wrote. When people ask me which is my favorite I can't answer that because it changes daily.

 'Redemption of the Sorcerer' is an epic fantasy novel that is massive in what it represents. One man who made some bad choices and lost his way while all the while becoming more and more powerful to the point that he was the greatest wizard in creation. Then a carefully orchestrated plan was implemented over many years to overthrow him. Once removed from power he's exiled to w realm without magic, only then is the real danger revealed. Now powerless, is Crystalon going to do the right thing and save the new world he finds himself on from a demonic foe? The big question is, is he even going to care enough to try?

'Torahg the Warrior, Sword of Vengeance' is a classic sword and sorcery novel set in a long forgotten realm of monsters and magic where man and his sharpened sword are all that stand before the evils in that world. Torahg is the story of a young prince who watches his father be killed before his very eyes by a malevolent wizard, as well as his own flesh and blood brother, Prince Welcomb. Welcomb is a petty, jealous man who wants the throne of Fairandia for himself, and lets nothing stand in his way of his goal. Thus the naïve and kind hearted Prince Torahg roams the face of the world for twenty long years, while hunted by mercenaries and thugs the world over. But the day has come when Torahg decides it is time to return to Fairandia and to free her people from the oppressive yoke of his brother, or die trying!  'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance' is a classic sword and sorcery tale in the vein of great characters like Conan, John Carter, King Kull and Tarzan.

'The Cagliostro Chronicles' is a sci-fi adventure set in 2089 when mankind makes its final steps toward the larger universe with Mark Johnson's perfection of a faster than light drive. But that is just the beginning of the story as Johnson, along with his handpicked crew of adventurers leave our solar system behind and fly off to a greater universe filled with intrigue and deadly foes, as well as a deepening century old mystery and conspiracy that if left undiscovered will tear the earth and its inhabitants apart!

'Help! They're All Out to Get Me! The Motorcyclists Guide to Surviving the Everyday World' is a non-fiction 'How-to' book for the new or returning motorcyclist as well as those who may need tuning up their skills. It was my first book and still my best seller to this day.

All of these are available on my website http://RLAngeloJr.com or at Amazon directly http://tinyurl.com/ralphsamazon  

Your daily Ralph~7/22/13

You may have noticed there hasn't been a daily Ralph the past two days. There's a twofold reason for that actually, One is that it was the weekend, and I probably won't be doing this on weekends, if I'm around and its a rainy day, then yeah, you have a good chance of being regaled by more of my wit, but if its a nice weekend, I may just pass and leave you with 5 days a week of Daily Ralph's. I mean really, how much more of this can the mortal mind withstand without overloading and exploding all over close sitting family members?
The second  reason is that I was readying a new release. I had a second novel in less that a month released as of today.
The Cagliostro Chronicles is a sci-fi adventure novel (Why the HELL are thsy calling these 'Space Opera's' now??? It's ALL Sci-fi!) set in the not too distant future and revolves around man's first faster than light space flight and the dangers that flight reveals in the depths of space. The hidden enemies that dwell beyond the furthest star, and what this all means for the inhabitants of earth.
There is danger, intrigue and the mysteries of the unknown beyond the furthest star. If the crew of the star cruiser Cagliostro can't unravel what they discover out there, it will mean the end of life as we know it upon the earth!

The Cagliostro Chronicles is available at http://tinyurl.com/thecagliostro

What this also means is that I am truly beginning to feel like an author for the first time, instead of one who just dabbles in a hobby. This will be the fourth book I'll have out there, including my non-fiction 'How To' Motorcycle Instructional book.

All four are available right here at http://tinyurl.com/ralphsamazon  

Where does that leave me now? What's coming down the pike next? I have several short stories coming out in various magazines and anthologies followed by the sequel to 'Redemption of the Sorcerer.' somewhere around Thanksgiving (I want to get it done by then so you have something to put under the tree instead of a bag of socks for uncle Bob.)

Of course you could always start your shopping early and buy one of each of my titles for everyone on your Christmas list. (Hint Hint ! Nudge Nudge)

So go and enjoy my new sci-fi novel, "The Cagliostro Chronicles" and please write a review and tell me what you thought. The same goes for the other books I've written . I hope you enjoy and thanks in advance!

The Cagliostro Chronicles is Here!

In the year 2089 man's first faster than light space flight is about to begin, but where it ends will be filled with action, adventure and the unknown! The Cagliostro is an experimental space craft which is destined to begin mans first faster than light voyage beyond his solar system and into a greater universe filled with dangerous adversaries, intrigue and a deadly conspiracy set to tear humanity apart! Join Mark Johnson and his crew of adventurers as they travel beyond our wildest dreams and into a universe fraught with mystery and danger!

 

 

Available now!

http://tinyurl.com/thecagliostro

 

 

 

 

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Your daily Ralph 7/20/13

That's all I'm sayin'...

Your Daily Ralph~ 7/17/13

Another day, another ridiculous blast of heat and humidity. It's yet another awful day here in sunny Long Island.  That being said let's talk about creativity.

When you see certain things, do they make you think of a story that would go along with that object or person? There are a lot of times that I do. It could be a random anything. A dented car ("How did that dent get there? Was the car in a high speed chase and got slammed into by a pursuing car?") "A burned building somewhere, what's the story behind that?" "What could it be?" is really the question to ask. Could it have been from a giant creature from space or another dimension stepping on it?  Now what if that house was near the water? Could it have been burned to the ground by an invading army of  undersea dwellers? The possibilities go on forever. Anything could be caused by anything else, and that's where the story begins.

Watching a baseball game and a huge shadow falls over the stadium, is it a cloud or could it be an invading space ship?  (Remember 'Independence day'?")

As a writer, everything takes on its own life, every bump in the night, every cloud in the sky. This is how imagination and creativity work. For every problem in writing there's a solution, it just has to be discovered.

It took Torahg the Warrior twenty years to discover that he had a way back to the home he was exiled from. Read his adventure today http://tinyurl.com/torahg

Your Daily Ralph! 7/16/13

Today I have to think about how damned hot it's been lately. For the past three weeks here on Long Island it's been abominable humidity and atrocious heat. To say I'm not a summer person would be an understatement.

As per usual, our spring was a mess and far too short and it led directly into a brutally hot summer. It is now 86 deg. at 10:45 AM as I write this. Ugghh. I live on an Island, Long Island actually. But I'm not a beach lover, never have been. In fact the only beach I've ever really liked is Wildwood in New Jersey. now that's a beach! Half a mile to the water from the street of pure white sand, graded every day by a crew of sand grading machines. A nightlife in the small towns that dot the shoreline, and a boardwalk filled with attractions and rides. To say the least its a fun place. Here on Long Island we have sand. Not much of it either as every year it erodes  more and more and they do nothing to build it back up.

When I was a kid, Smiths Point Park was a rather large beach, now it's a stones throw to the water. I visit it every so often , usually to hear a band playing in one of the cafe's that exist there. They call them cafe's but its really just beach food. Dog's burgers, fries , some seafood, etc.  But sometimes they have a good band playing at those places and you can sit back, if you're lucky enough to grab a table and chair, and enjoy.


Today I'm getting out of here for a while. the pets are fed and I need time away from this keyboard. hot or not it's time to get outside and do something other than hide from the heat. Later today I'll come back and edit a bunch more of the Cagliostro Chronicles which is inching toward release. It's my first foray into sci-fi (for some reason they call it space opera today, to me it'll always be sci-fi). I feel a lot better about this one than I did originally. When I was writing it some months back I kept thinking "What am I doing here?" But I guess I knew, my editor liked it a lot so that makes me happy. Hopefully you will too.

In the meantime I heartily recommend you read both 'Redemption of the Sorcerer' and 'Torahg the Warrior' I think you'll enjoy them both!

Your Daily Ralph~7/13/13

So a  funny thing happened on the way to the movies yesterday...

Stop me if you heard this one before.  My buddy picked me up and I had my new 'Torahg' T-Shirt on, which is the front cover on my chest and the back cover on my back. he looks at me and says "Is that a short story you were working on?" I told him "No, it was another novel I wrote and was just published."

He said "Oh, I didn't know you had another novel out."

Which really made me think, because I have been plugging this thing for two weeks straight just about every day, in every way possible. And yet, he didn't know I had a new book out. Now I'm asking myself 'How much advertising is too much?' because in no uncertain terms that IS what I am doing, trying to get people interested in reading my stuff. So I keep plugging away with it all. I was actually beginning to think I was doing too much pushing with it. But that immediately changed after hearing his comment.

So go buy my books, you won't be sorry. Both of the novels I have out there are great! And no I'm not embarrassed or too shy to say that, because I really believe it. I'll have another new novel out soon called ' The Cagliostro Chronicles' which is a space sci-fi epic set in the not so distant future chronicling man's first faster than light flight and the dangers that are awaiting us out there In the great beyond.

In the meantime, go get yourself a copy of both 'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance', and 'Redemption of the Sorcerer, the Crystalon Saga, Book One' You won't be sorry, you'll be enthralled. Like that guy says  on TV about the suits (Actually like he SAID because he was recently fired) to paraphrase "You're gonna like what you're reading, I guarantee it!"   http://tinyurl.com/ralphsamazon

And I saw Pacific rim twice yesterday and loved every second of it. It was the absolutely perfect summer movie. Best movie this summer as far as I'm concerned. Giant robots Vs. Giant invading monsters! You can't go wrong! 

Your Daily Ralph~ 7/12/13

Summer Movies- Or can Pacific Rim live up to what I'm expecting of it?


Pacific Rim has intrigued me since this Dark Horse came out of the gates in January when I got the first glimpses of it in trailers and viral marketing. To a kid who grew up on Godzilla movies and who had giant robot toys, this is the holy grail of all films. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one, in fact I'm going to see it twice today. Once at 4:30 with a buddy in imax 3D and once tonight with my brother.

Pacific Rim looks to be every kids dream who read comics and watched the classic Japanese monster movies. Every summer there was a new Japanese import in those days, and my father would happily truck us all to the theater on a Saturday afternoon and sit down to watch these larger than life titans destroying Tokyo and New York and wherever else they wandered.


So jump ahead 40 years, as now with modern technology and CGI we get to see something that was only hinted at in a few old Toho productions> Giant Robots Vs. Giant Monsters! As per usual the so-called reviewers get it wrong while the internet buzz is overwhelmingly positive on this one. the 'critics' are panning it. It annoys me somewhat, because those guys aren't even relative anymore. They don't matter. thanks to the internet. we can get much truer reviews most of the time, even that isn't true 100% of the time (People hated the Green Lantern movie only because it starred Ryan Reynolds, no other reason. The same goes for Battleship. they judged it before it came out and because it was based on a board game. Meanwhile it was great!)

Anyway, in a summer that already gave us the dreadful 'Iron Man 3' and the Super 'Man of Steel', I'm really hoping that 'Pacific Rim' hits it out of the park this weekend. I've been waiting for this one for a long time, seemingly my whole life!

                                                                                 
                                                                   COMING SOON!

Your daily Ralph 7/11/13

Sorry for the lack of the Daily Ralph today, but I had a wisdom tooth removed today, and I can barely think straight. So Tomorrow you'll get a new Daily Ralph .

Your Daily Ralph 7/10/13

There's so much more that goes into it.

When you hold the finished product in your hand, be it a novel or a short story or a comic book, whether you realize it or not, that story took a long time and a lot of work to get there where you can hold it. First and foremost it all starts with an idea. What the writer wanted to convey to you in his story. Then it took research on his part to tell that story correctly where it would make sense and be true to what he or she originally envisioned. In some circle the next part is the hardest part, actually sitting down and writing it all. This is the part that can literally take years. Some very prolific people can churn out one new novel after another in a few months at a time. Others it takes what can feel like forever.

But to me at least the worst part is editing. I go over something and it looks perfect and great to me. Yet when I send it in to my editor, well lets just say I always realize why I'm NOT an editor and am a writer. editing is the longest part of all of this, at least it seems that way to me. I invariably take a few days to implement the changes the editor suggests I do. Its painstakingly time consuming, but when it's done the story becomes so much better. I can best compare it to shearing the husk off of an ear of corn. You get the junk out of the way to get to the goodness underneath.

You see, editing is as much a part of the story as writing it is, and perhaps more, because without editing you may be left with a formless lump of clay instead of the coherent thing of beauty you get with a properly edited piece.

So the next time you pick up a novel and finish it with a smile on your face, think fort a second what went into that book and how long it actually took to put it all together.

Want a free copy of one of my books? Do a review!

Who wants an autographed copy of one of my novels for free???
Well almost for free, there's two small catches, Caytch one, you have to buy a digital copy of either 'Redemption of the Sorcerer' or 'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance', and they are cheap! $2.99 each for your kindle. Catch #2 you have to review it on Amazon and on Goodreads, which is very easy to do, I can talk you through the process if need be. Once that is done I will GLADLY Send you a free autographed paperback copy. Basically I want reviews and am willing to give you free books to get them. This is for US citizens only . Sorry my friends in other lands, it's just too darn expensive to ship overseas. Buy your digital copies here: http://www.amazon.com/Ralph-L.-Angelo-Jr./e/B008M0PW6W/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0#/ref=la_B008M0PW6W_rf_p_n_feature_browse-b_1?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB008M0PW6W%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011&bbn=283155&ie=UTF8&qid=1372627126&rnid=618072011

Your Daily Ralph 7/9/13

World Building


As an author, we have to go through a little something called 'World Building' even when we don't realize it. Now authors who write in the here and now don't have to adhere to this technique as much as authors who write in the future or in the past. Even if you write in recent past, such as those who write 30's and 40's pulp. They have a basis to start with at least, but they still have crate a viable world around those characters. If you write in the dim, unknown past you have your work cut out for you. Never mind on another world or the far flung future.

Case in point, my just released 'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance' on Pro Se Publications label. It takes place in a dim past that is pre-historic. That does not mean there are dinosaurs running around, though there very well could be. What it means is that it is pre- history. It takes place in a somewhat civilized era that there is no longer any remnant of. It is pre-historic. Basically it's a fresh new world.

But the way I worked it, the mapping is the same. In other words 'the black sea' became 'the sea of darkness' in Torahg. you can figure out the rest from there.

Now on to Crystalon's world, things got completely different as it's a parallel earth that he's from. So while he may have recognized different landmasses when he came to our world there were no individual nations. It had been all under his control, as had many other worlds in his home dimension. IN the upcoming Crystalon novel, "My Enemy, Myself' it's revealed that on Crystalon's home world, New York City is known as the 'Sorcerer's City'

Going even further, my forthcoming sci-fi novel, 'The Cagliostro Chronicles' a good chunk of the story takes place on an alien world, so that's a perfect example of world building, as well as the universe surrounding them all that they live and breathe in.

See, the 'world' in that case at least is not just the planet they walk upon, but everything that encompasses them as well. It's their environment. That could be ten galaxies and the design of the space craft they fly in as well as what the earth looks like ninety years from now.

All of that has to be conveyed in a way to not take away from the story as well as to help build upon it. You don't want to bore your reader with details, but you do want to give them just enough to know the character they are reading about do not exist within four blank walls.

That's world Building

Your Daily Ralph! #1

Today will be the very first of many 'Daily Ralph's' . Basically you'll get the opportunity to read what I'm up to and what's new with me. Right now I'm working on the next Crystalon novel entitled 'My Enemy, My Self' I'm not a quite a third of the way through it yet, but I'm getting there. I'm not looking to release that until around Christmas time giving you all something cool to put under the tree for readers both young and old alike.
Like 'Redemption of the Sorcerer' it's an epic tale that is just huge in scale. The difference here though is that Crystalon really gets to shine from the outset of the tale. He's fully powered up and now just looking to stop evil wherever he sees it, until it comes knocking at his front door with a plea for help from his home dimension in the most unlikeliest of forms, his former wife, Amera!

Look for 'My enemy, Myself' around the end of the year, it'll be worth the wait.

In the meantime, last week Pro Se Publications released my sword and sorcery epic, 'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance' Torahg lives in a pre-history world of the dim past. A world of savagery and evil magic where seemingly every few square miles is another kingdom. The most powerful of those kingdoms is his fathers to rule, until a series of events are put into motion by a duplicitous family member, his own brother 'Welcomb' as well as Welcomb's vile ally, the sorcerer, 'Schargath', that results in the kings death and Torahg being framed for that murder, resulting in him barely escaping the kingdom with his life. For twenty long hard years he travels the lands, growing in strength and power. Becoming far more skilled, but also becoming far more angry and hate filled. When he emerges after all that time he is a far, far different man than the naïve young prince who left his home in Fairandia with his mentor Reynard at his side. He is now more akin to a raging force of nature than a man. But first and foremost he is a hero, battling through villains from the depths of hell to the most vile woman he has ever met. He is Torahg the Warrior! And woe be to any who stand in his path! 'Torahg the Warrior: Sword of Vengeance is available at http://RLAngeloJr.com


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