Author - Artist - Voice Over Actor

Category: Book Recommendation

Favorite Reading

When I was a young kid, elementary school age, as mention in a previous post, I had trouble reading. My parents took me to a special extra-curricular study place called The Reading Game.

It is no longer there. The building torn down and replaced by a multi-use apartment complex for students and others from the nearby University.

Reading their remedial booklets went on for many money, I no longer remember how long I attended there.

Then one day I picked up a comic book (I’ve already written about How I got that first comic), and it all changed. I was enjoying reading.

My parent’s asked the instructor if it was okay for me to be reading comics. The response was simple. If he’s reading, done stop him. Encourage him. And so, I have been reading comic books my entire life.

The next thing that got me further into reading was a series of books called: Choose Your Own Adventure. They were fantastic, especially as you could read it three or four times and get an entirely different story each time. Probably the only regular books I checked out of the school library.

(My relationships with libraries is a story unto itself.)

Comics would remain my mainstay reading content.

The reading material assigned to me in class, continued to be a struggle, hard to remain focused on whether it be elementary, junior high, or high school. It would be these outside sources, especially comics, where I could grow and learn.

If I could read something at my own pace, I could enjoy it. If it was an assigned book or chapter, I’d force my way through it but it was always a struggle, and I didn’t always learn anything from it unless the topic was of great interest to me and brought me enjoyment.

I’d later learn to enjoy doing research, but I had to find something interesting in it, something that was fun, in order to devote that much time to it. Otherwise, it was a real struggled.

The first real novel I thing I read was HG Wells’ The Time Machine.

I eventually discover the short stories and novels of Ray Bradbury. Then I found the essays of Harlan Ellison. So you know my creativity and learning process was growing.

Again, it would take an interest to get me to start and then complete reading of a book.

I remember reading a Shakespeare play in high school and enjoyed it, followed by Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible. Probably reading these in script format was probably easier than a full out novel.

During college and friend introduced me to two book series. Since I enjoyed Watch Doctor Who he thought I would like Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Which resulted in my writing several stories for class in Adam’s voice. I don’t think my teacher appreciated it.

He then introduced me to Steven R Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle. Looking back, I am still surprised by how fast I read through these books. They were heavy novels (figuratively and literally). I greatly enjoyed the books.

Over the years I would become more and more of a reader, but finding the books that appealed to me, that I enjoyed wasn’t always easy.  The number of books I have read, per year, has been relatively few.

Sometimes it was the type of book, the type genre.

“So, what’s your favorite fiction genre?”  – Here we are back at this question again, remember my last post.

As to Genre, I think the answer is the same as my “Doctor Who” answer previously:

I will admit I don’t like Horror, but when it comes to the rest of the genres.

“I like the one I am currently reading.”

I grew up on super hero comics, which lead into science fiction and fantasy, and especially mystery/detective fiction. Plus, over the last decade or so I’ve discovered a love for romance novels.

The first romance books I read were fantasy romance, about dragons.

Then I discovered a series called Once Upon A Con by Ashley Poston, starting with Geekerella. Telling a story that took place around a Comic Con, you had me, but these were fantastic stories, and I’ve been all of Poston’s books since.

Because of Poston, I’ve discovered other great romance authors.

Since the start of this year, I have read more books than I have in any full year I have ever had, and they were all Romance novels. Sure, they were all light novels, but still, it’s quite different for me.

Will Romance remain my Favorite Genre? Probably not, I’ll shift back to Mystery and Fantasy, Science Fiction, and shift back around again.

Looking back that the little kid I was, I am still so surprised by how much I am currently reading.

Reading is fantastic. Enjoy it.

The Phantom Detective is out

As I’ve told you in previous posts, along with super heroes I fell in love with the adventure heroes that came out of the Pulp era and in the Golden Age of Radio. Those masked, and some not, adventures were always a part of me.

Let me introduce you to The Phantom Detective

2020 Comic-Con Thoughts

            Nearly forty years ago I went to my first comic book convention.

            It was fun, and quite small.

            Next I would attend a Robotech convention, it was fun, and even smaller.

            A few years later I went to my very first San Diego Comic-Con.

            At the time it was held in the old San Diego Convention Center downtown, I’m not old enough to have attended in the hotel where it first began. But that year, it was quite an amazing experience for the kid who had his hopes set on becoming a comic book artist.

            Two things stand out in my memories of my first Comic-Con. Getting inking lessons from Dick Giordano, (especially how to create ‘Kirby Dots’) and hoping to meet one of my favorite writers. Unfortunately, he missed his panel, afterwards a few of us attempted to have him paged, but he never showed.

            Many years later I spotted him across the lobby of one of the San Diego Comic-Con hotels and I rushed across to talk with him. I told him how much his comics, his writing, his research, influenced the young boy that I was and the man I am. That was probably one of the best experiences of all my Comic-Con visits.

            The year of my first San Diego Comic-Con the attendance was 5,000.

            That sounded like a massive amount of people at the time, but it is nothing compared to the 120,000 to 160,000 that have attended each year over the last decade or so. Many more who hang out in the Gaslamp District.

            In over 30 years I only missed San Diego one time.

            I’ve always been a loner geek, and in a massive con crowd even more so. I’d have to find someone to go with me.

            With in weeks of when the woman who would become my wife moved to Southern California, I took to her to her first convention. To the San Diego Comic-Con. She’d later say I should have started her off small, but she enjoyed it all the same, and has gone with me every year since. Both of us with Pro-Badges now.

            This year things are different, for all of us. Convention season hasn’t been canceled; it has gone virtual. The Convention Center, Exhibit Hall, The Masquerade, the Panels, they all exist in The Cloud right now. On YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and more.
For San Diego Comic-Con they are now Comic-Con@Home. Wednesday, July 22nd. to Sunday, July 26.

The 2020 Comic-Con souvenir book. Click on the image to download a PDF copy.

            It’s disappointing, but it’s not gone.

As for the future, no one really knows yet. Conventions will probably never be that large again, but maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s time that our love for comics, movies, video games, science fiction, and fantasy returns to being more intimate. Where a small group of fans can enjoy their shared love for a comic book, or good naturedly argue over how a movie didn’t quite get their favorite character just right, and not be crowded out and have to shout over one another. Where Disney Princesses and Transformers don’t have to worry about thousands of feet tramping on their costumes.

            The Cons are about us, the fans, and our love of stories that exist in four-color comics, books, celluloid film, digital pixels, computer screens, smart phones, and much more.

            Speaking of that love, and of our fandoms, I’d like to recommend something:

ONCE UPON A CON

            As I write this blog I am finishing reading a book for the third time. It seemed to be the right book to read in the midst of this Con Season.

            It’s title is GEEKERELLA: A FANGIRL FAIRY TALE, part one of author Ashley Poston‘s ONCE UPON A CON series of novels.

            This book is a love song to comic and science fiction conventions, to comics and science fiction television, to fans and fandom, to just plain being a geek no matter who you are. Are you an actor, a writer, an artist, a blogger, or just a good old fan of an old TV series, you exist inside the impossible universe of Geekeralla.

            While not being able to go to a con and need something to pull on your convention heartstrings, this book will do it.

            Then go pick up the second book in the series THE PRINCESS AND THE FAN GIRL, and coming in August BOOKISH AND THE BEAST.

            Your Inner-Geek will thank you.

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