BACK TO THE WAY I WENT

Over the weekend we went back to where I grew up in Virginia. Not only did we visit my home town and family but a number of other places in VA and TN. We have hundreds of photos of caves, national parks, family, roads, deer, and happy moments but I just picked out a few images that I took from my phone to use here in this post. You can check my Twitpic feed for more images but most are on Mar's camera which kicks my cameras ass. I will give a few brief comments with each photos.

We landed in Knoxville and drove to Gatlinburg to stay so we would be near the Smoky Mountain Park.

Roadside near the Sugarlands Visitor Center.

Mar took this picture of me getting in some writing on the rough of my third book as she was off changing for the drive home. My second book is being edited as I type this.

Greenville TN, Andrew Johnson historic site.

Natural Tunnel where we went a lot of times as a family.

Going down the Natural Tunnel lift.

The Wise County library. Where I spent many days after school.

This place in the library holds a memory of me sitting down and in one full read going through DUNE.

CAVALIER COMICS, the local comic shop located in Wise. I didn't go in since I wasn't holding any spending money and would have felt bad just looking around.

My High School. Not too many fond memories to be honest but one of the goals of this trip was me finally getting past a lot of things that have been eating at me for years.

The entrance to GAP CAVE in Cumberland Gap Park.

A great picture from inside the cave.

The cave exit.

Pinnacle Point. Now that's a view.

I collect these from places we go.

See on one, and see, on the other side.

We almost missed our flight. The flight home turned out to be ok, though I  had a very nervous kid beside me who couldn't sit still for a second during the trip.

BACK TO THE WAY I WENT

1300

Mar just got a 1300 on the GRE as she is ready to apply for a PHD program. The little fucker already has a Masters. The shit didn't even study that much. I love her brains :)

1300

DOCTOR WHO #7 - 8

TIME SMASH

Written by Tony Lee
Art by Al Davison
Colors by Lovern Kindzierski
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Edits by Denton J. Tipton
Covers by Paul Grist, Phil Elliot; Al Davison

Published by IDW Publishing

This two part story came at a good time and once again I'm glade they are not set on a story has to be this many issues or that many. I'm really enjoying the canon touches also because so far they really haven't hurt the flow of any of the issues and just added nice little touches for some people get what the images or references repersent.

This two part story reminded me a lot of, The Edge Of Destruction, from the first season of the classic series. Not only because of its setting but because of who really is the main character of the story. I don't want go into too much detail here because of spoiling anything but I really liked this story. The artwork by Al Davison is some of the best I've seen in any Doctor Who comic. Give this artist an ongoing someone. I hope he returns to another story in this series.

So without getting into spoilers I think I'll get into my review end. I recommend this story as a great starting point for new readers and those who picked up the previvous 6 issues so far. It gave us a fast moving story that moved the overall story arc along with pieces of the past thrown in for fun. 3 out of 5 stars because I really enjoyed the sidestep as we head toward the time of this story arac into The 11th Doctor era for this comic.

Review by Brian C. Williams

DOCTOR WHO #7 - 8

IT IS

Very few things make the backs of my eyes hurt but piracy of books, music, or whatever is one of them. I don't get upset at the thought of someone stealing because anyone can understand that. What keeps me head desking until my forehead bleeds like a pro-wrestler at Starcade is how someone can say this isn't theft.


It is.

Sorry you have to wrap your brain into corners so you don't have to think of yourself that way but downloading music or books illegally is stealing.

I've done it in the past and just about anyone in the modern world has in one way or another violated someone’s copyright at least in some way.

But it is stealing.

You have a book you didn't pay for is the same as if you walked into B&N and slipped it into your jacket. Oh, and don't tell me "This is the way of the modern world." No shit, not blind here, just wishing others could open their own eyes with a bit of truth. Remember I'm not even attacking the act of downloading, I'm just biting my fingers over the fact that people refuse to acknowledge that it’s theft.

And the next response is usually that it only hurts big companies or big name money talent. Really? See, I'm a nobody who has published one PDF novel and couple of poetry collections and a few days ago I had someone point me to a website where someone was making money off my book(at a markup)as if it was their own work. The person who pointed me to the site only found out because the person didn't even change the name of the book or anything within the file itself. I'm nobody and I get ripped off and every fucking sale does mean something to me.

But also not just to me. The plan was to use the money from the sales my first book to hire an artist to do the cover for my second book. So that’s two steps of theft. You took money out of my pocket and that from an artist I would have hired at professional wages to do a cover for my next book. The plan now is to do a photo cover for the book and I hate photo covers with a passion.

But illegal downloading doesn’t hurt anyone?

I contacted the person by the contact information on their website and after a few e-mail exchanges that went from the person first saying they did write the book, to them then saying “What are you going to do about it, your nobody”, to them finally admitting it, and get this Asking if I want to write a book with them???? After my last email to this person or persons I went by the site to find it gone but this person had already made money on my writing, My crappy writing, and if the information on their site could be believed they sold over 200 copies of my book. I haven’t sold that many!!!!

I contacted the company hosting their website also. I don’t know if I handled this the right way but my anger is justified. You can say my writing sucks, you can say I’m nobody, you can say it didn’t cost my thousands, but you can’t for a minutes say this isn’t stealing…well, you can, but you’re a dumbass if that’s your line of thinking.

But Hell, what the fuck do we expect when Google is doing the same thing and no government agents are showing up at their headquarters to take them to a jail cell….

But Hell, what the fuck do we expect when people can’t even grow a backbone enough to say, yes, yes, this is stealing, I'm not paying for the materials, it’s theft, I'm downloading them illegally.


P.S. …. When something really B.S. loaded hits my life at first I want to write something full of hate, spit, evil, and waste but end up writing something totally different. Probably more proof of the insanity of being a writer.

IT IS

TUESDAY POETRY SPOTLIGHT: CLOUD

I’m just me,

I’m just nothing but my Heaven and Hell,

I live there both and linger in silence if I’m feeling it,

A boy joyfully playing with lies,

A man or child looking for new highs,

A trying person educating himself further so no one in those churches can forget,

I believe I am who I am for a reason,

I’m not a joke,

I’m not just a creation,

I’m a person,

I’m a lover,

I’m a friend,

I’m a child,

I’m a man,

I’m a boy,

I’m a found spirit,

(c)brian c. williams

SYSTEM*PRODUCTIONS

Free Poetry Collection for download: ACETAMINOPHEN 12000mg

TUESDAY POETRY SPOTLIGHT: CLOUD

DOCTOR WHO #3 -6

FUGITIVE

Parts One - Four

Written by Tony Lee

Art by Matthew Dow Smith

Colors by Charlie Kirchoff

Letters by Chris Mowry, Robbie Robbins; Neil Uyetake

Edits by Denton J. Tipton

Covers by Paul Grist, Phil Elliott, Matthew Dow Smith, Charlie Kirchoff

Published by IDW

If you have no problems with a little Canon Wank then you may enjoy this four part story, I did. Issue #2 left as The Doctor was arrested by The Shadow Proclaimation by the hands of the Judoon. I will not get into all of the mentions and appearances from The Doctor's past but to say that I really enjoyed some of the writing on the subject that I've not seen attacked before of what happens after The Doctor has defeated an enemy. Effects on that enemies people as a whole is something that I don't think has been approached before and that alone is saying something with a property that has been around for as long as the Doctor Who universe has been.

I still have my misgivings on whether Tony Lee will be able to keep up the quaility of writing needed in the long run for a series such as this but so far I have to admitt he has done so. Fugitive is a story that starts in a fashion seen so many times in sci-fi and several times in Doctor Who itself but it takes many little directions not appraoched that often that the story keeps a fresh appraoch to it. I did not have much hope for this series being anything more than just a licensed book sold to hardcore fans. I mayself being one but so far the art and writer has been much more than that and I hope Tony Lee and the team can keep that up for many issues into the future.

To get caught up on the series in reviews to current issues I will be doing reviews of each storyline until I find mayself with the new issues coming out. From there I will review each issue as it comes out.

This four part story is one of political chess pieces involving peace not for no more war but peace for a smaller scale of war and less choas and this was a approach I really found interesting.

A little pet peeve of mine with writers writing for the 10th Doctor. Ok, writers, enough with the "One warning" thing. It's been done to death by now. Even The Doctor doesn't repeat himself this often.

Old enemies and sometimes allies find appearances of worth in here and not just thrown in either. There's actually a point to most of it. Talk of characters accross the board including the Big Finish audio stories finds me really wanting to give this story 3 out of 5 stars but my bit of not faith in not wanting to get my hopes up for the series to coutinue with the good appraoches all around found in the start to this series has me giving it 2 out of 5 and I know that does not do it justice. Also this paragraph sucks.

I'm glade IDW has taken on the time honored tradation of giving us new compaions for these new stories. The comics of the past, the novels, the audios, have all done so and issue #6 does this also. I like that because by doing so each take on the Doctor Who Universe has its own fresh take that doesn't exist anywhere else.

To end here I want to say I hope IDW keeps up and coutinues the quality of writing and art they have given The Doctor and his travels both in this series, the one-shots, and the reprints. As a geektastic Doctor Who fan I will be buying every issue that comes out but that doesn't mean I don't want great stories also and so far IDW has done so. Here's hoping IDW gets the license also for Torchwood, U.N.I.T., Sarah Jane, and others from the whole of the Doctor Who universe because I think to this point they have did nothing but keep a move forward take on something people world wide love greatly.

review written by Brian C. Williams

DOCTOR WHO #3 -6