Bill Leisner

Welcome to the Seventh Annual BLOG Looks at Books Year in Review!

This year, I managed to complete 46 books in total, an increase over the 39 read the previous year. This number includes 12 Star Trek tie-ins (the highest this number has been since writing my last ST fiction), 1 non-Trek media tie-in title, 17 titles in continuing literary series, 3 short-story collections, and 2 non-fiction titles.

2011 is also the year I broke down and purchased a dedicated ebook reader. In the three months I have owned my Nook, I used it to read 10 titles -- 5 of which were published as ebooks without the option of a physical book. And in that period, I also continued to read paperbound books (3).

For the sixth year running, Ed McBain was my most-read author, as I finished another 4 titles in my survey of the complete 87th Precinct series. Following Ed were Keith DeCandido (kradical), Steven Hochensmith and Dayton Ward (daytonward) at 3 titles each, and three more authors tied at 3rd with 2. I also read books by 8 new-to-me authors.

And as my favorite read of the year, I chose The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont, a novel about Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague deCamp during their time at the Philadelphia Naval Yard during WWII, attempting to find a secret superweapon invented by Nikola Tesla.

How about you? Read any good books lately?

Happy Halloween!! It's been a while since my last Wayback Movie Review (and even longer since the one before that), so I thought I would celebrate All Hallow's Eve by snarking on a classic of horror genre. Thanks to all who voted in my poll earlier this month. Of the five candidates, one film was the runaway winner, with twice as many votes as its nearest contender (i.e. 2 votes versus 1). In celebration of its 80th anniversary, we present Universal's 1931 film, Frankenstein.

( We've got movie sign! )

So, I'm considering doing another Wayback Movie Review, this time of a classic horror flick for Halloween this year. I've ID'ed a few candidates which are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year, so I thought I'd throw it out to the few LiveJournal dead-enders who still read this to see what you-all think. The contenders are:

Dracula, 80 years old this year
Frankenstein, also 80 years old
The Evil Dead, celebrating its 30th anniversary
The Silence of the Lambs, 20 years old
The Addams Family, likewise marking two decades
Poll #1783621
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Which Film Should I Review?

For those who didn't see my post on Facebook: My short story "A Faithful Companion" has been accepted for publication in the 2012 anthology "A Quiet Shelter There," edited by Gerri Leen. If you've ever wondered what became of Adam and Eve's dog after they left the Garden -- or even if you never knew Adam and Eve had a dog -- this is a story you want to read! Book proceeds will go to the Friends of Homeless Animals shelter in Northern Virginia.

This week marks a very important anniversary in SF film history. It was thirty-five years ago, on June 23, 1976, that MGM released the film Logan's Run.

Thirty-five years. You realize what that means? That's right, it means this film somehow escaped its deserved fate on its thirtieth anniversary, and has been living on borrowed time for the past half-decade. Well, the time has come to address this oversight, and to finally subject it to the bright, snarky red flashing spotlight it deserves. Last Day begins, and so does the Wayback Retro Review of Logan's Run!

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Twenty-five years ago, on April 2, 1986, a new series debuted on ICB-TV 13, Ithaca College's student-run television station. The series was called ANTHOLOGY, and that's what it was: an anthology of short films created by students in the college's cinema department, as well as original scripts written and produced for the series. And the first such script, chosen to launch the series, was a story called "God's Game," written by a young IC freshman named William Leisner.

Not only was this my first piece of writing ever seen by a wider audience (though it is rather questionable how wide an audience our ten-hours-a-week cable channel actually had). It was also the first piece of writing I had ever intended for an audience outside of myself, and perhaps a few family members or close friends. And the fact that people outside of that comfortable circle were so complimentary of this effort convinced me to try it again, and see if this was just a fluke. It wasn't -- a year later, my second script kicked off the show's second season. Subsequent efforts were not snapped up in such rapid-fire fashion, but by then, there was no going back.

I was a writer.

Working on ANTHOLOGY was the highlight of my college career, and the people who I worked with on that show, like Cory Conley, Sandra McDonald, Diana Brodie, and John Barrile, continue to be friends. And as I write this, I realize that if not for that experience, I would not feel so guilty for writing this nostalgic blather as a way of procrastinating work on my novel in progress.

The book I am reading: Must the Maiden Die by Miriam Grace Monfredo. One of a series of historical mysteries set in western New York in the mid 1800s. Ms. Monfredo was a frequent guest of honor during my bookseller days back home, and I'd read the first few books of this series back then.

The book I am writing: A Western/fantasy/alternate history tale in which the story of the westward expansion takes a very different turn when a hero emerges on the side of the Plains Indians.

The book I love most: Would it be narcissistic to say "my own"? Yeah, of course it would be. The next one that comes to mind is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was the one and only high school English assignment that I actually enjoyed reading.

The last book I received as a gift: I rarely ask for books as gifts, since I buy anything and everything I want. Two Christmases ago, though, I did hold off on purchasing Stephen King's Just After Sunset so that I did have something to put on my wish list.

The last book I gave as a gift: Cat, a preschooler book for my niece, Audrey.

The nearest book on my desk: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary.

Every time I check in on the old LiveJournal, I'm finding new, anonymous replies have been posted to years-old entries. Some of them are classic spam (with hyperlinks no one with more net savvy than a Republican congressman would ever click), some are of the word-salad variety, some are in Russian (or else Cyrillic gibberish), and some seem perfect innocuous, except for the fact that the authors don't quite seem to know what they're replying to.

At any rate... if you're a real live person actually reading this LJ, and post as anonymous, you need to at least say, "Hi, I'm a real person, and I'm posting here for the following nonspammy reason." Otherwise, it's off to the electronic wastebasket with you.

What could draw me back to LiveJournal after an absence of two months? Why, it's my traditional end-o'-the-year book report!

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How about you? Read any good books lately?

And so this weekend, I have learned that self-e-publishing my fiction is maybe not the best of ideas...