An online serial by Colin Matthew, Art by Terry Blas

Part 3 – Wizard Defense Force

Chase and a handful of other wizards were ushered into a confined room, no larger than they typical high school class room. It was a rented office suite in one of the downtown office buildings. Chairs were positioned facing the front where a white board read “Welcome to Wizard Defense Force”. Chase groaned and took a seat near the back.
“Hey,” whispered the kid sitting next to Chase. “Do you think they’re going to teach of the really powerful spells?”
Chase glared at him. It was much to early in the morning and he hadn’t had his coffee yet. “Probably not,” he mumbled.
The kid looked out the window longingly. “Damn. I wanted to learn the spells that explode heads and shit. You know what I mean?”
Chase did know what he meant but didn’t care. The only reason he showed up was because the first task given to drafted wizards was to track down the other drafted wizards who didn’t report in, thinking they would be exempt if they ran far enough away. He was about to respond to the other draftee with something along the lines of “shut the hell up” when a wizard wearing anti-vampire protection gear walked in and stood in front of everybody.
“I’m glad to see that everybody showed up,” he said. He was tall, dark hair, middle aged with about a months worth of facial. Unlike the american army, any wizard in the Wizard Defense Force was required not to shave in order to maintain the common belief that all wizards have beards. “I’m Sargent Robert Michaels. You have all been drafted here for a very important task. We’re going to train you to be some of the most powerful wizards for the sole purpose of fighting our greatest enemy, vampires.”
The room erupted in mummers. Since when were vampires considered to be a wizard’s greatest enemy? Sure, they were annoying. But in the past they were no more a nuisance than twitter spam or the people who steal Netflix out of your mailbox.
The kid sitting next to Chase asked, “Shit. They gotta teach us powerful spells to fight those bastards.”
Chad glared at him. “You curse a lot.”

Bone: The Great Cow Race
by Jeff Smith
Scholastic, August 2005
144 pages

In Bone Volume 2: The Great Cow Race, Phoney Bone is up to his old tricks again as he attempts to rig Barrelhaven’s famous Great Cow Race by entering Smiley Bone dressed as a cow. On top of that, the stupid, stupid rat creatures are up to something and the red dragon that Fone Bone is always seeing turns out to be real.

Hilarity ensues.

Speaking of the Great Cow Race, why is nobody is bothered by Gran’ma Ben running in the Great Cow Race? Are all the villagers okay with watching the seemingly crazy old lady run in a race versus cows? Also, cows don’t run fast. Whose idea was it to race them? It almost seems that the village is afraid of the crazy old lady who lives in the forest. But that’s just my take on her at the moment.

I did like the second volume. It had a nice mixture of comedic moments mixed in with events that move the story forward. This book doesn’t do much to change my opinion of the series in either direction. I still think it’s a fun comic and I can see why people like it. But volume two just feels like more of the same and not an epic continuation. It could just be The Great Cow Race is building up to something. After all, there were some major plot developments and something odd is going on behind the scenes. At this point I haven’t read volume 3, Eyes of the Storm, but now that I have this post out of the way I plan on reading that volume in the near future.

Booking Through Thursday asks: If you could see one book turned into the perfect movie–one that would capture everything you love, the characters, the look, the feel, the story–what book would you choose?

Clive Barker’s Abarat series. The books (a would-be 5 book series if it ever gets finished) contain hundreds of original paints by Clive Barker himself. It’s such a weird, twisted world that I don’t know if I would want them to ever adapt it in to a film because so much would have to be cut.

But with the Harry Potter series ending soon, movie studios are looking for a new franchise. Clive Barker has done movie before so i’m sure somewhere down the line, maybe after all the books are released, there will be serious talks about adapting Abarat into a film. Back in 2004 I think Disney held the rights but they let them expire or something.

An online serial by Colin Matthew, Art by Terry Blas

Part 2 – Three Months Earlier

Contrary to popular belief, there was no such thing as Wizard School. Such places were works of fiction made up entirely for the purpose of building theme parks and selling t-shirts, water bottles, and pillowcases. Teenage wizards often joked about how they would like to attend one of these wizard schools and focus on levitating objects and brewing potions instead of reading Jane Austen and learning trigonometry like every other teenager in America.
For Chase the only thing he had in common with the fiction world of wizards was that both of his parents were dead. It was both tragic and cliché. He was only ten years old at the time and his father had just started to teach him how to use his wand. The day they died, Chase’s father had taught him his very first spell, Vamos Vampiranos, which was the standard spell children were taught. Since a vampire attack is how his parents were killed, Chase wasn’t sure if he ever learned to spell correctly because it sure didn’t do his parents much good.
After that fateful day, Chase moved around a lot from one wizard foster parents to another. None of them took the time to continue teaching Chase how to properly wield his wand. It wasn’t until his seventeenth birthday, when he received his Wizard Defense Draft Notice, that his lack of magical knowhow became a real problem.

Bone: Out From Boneville
by Jeff Smith
Scholastic, February 2005
144 pages

Bone might have been one of the first comics I was exposed to when I was little. I remember reading Bone in the pages of Disney Adventures Magazine back in 1994. I haven’t read Bone since but for the past couple years (about three years to be exact), I have been told by multiple people that the Bone graphic novels are worth reading.

In the first volume, Out From Boneville, the title character Fone Bone and his two cousins Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone are chased out of Boneville by an angry mob thanks to Phoney Bone’s get-rich-quick schemes. The three bones get seperated and it’s up to Fone Bone, with the help of Thorn (a pretty human) and Gran’ma Ben (a feisty human) to reunite the Bone cousins and get back to Boneville.

At least, I think that’s the goal, getting back to Boneville. They were chased out so I’m not quite sure they would be welcomed back with open arms. This is a nine book series so there is still plenty of time for things to happen. I enjoyed the first volume. Fone Bone develops a crush on Thorn and it’s cute to see Fone with little hearts over his head. There is also a bug named Ted and his much bigger brother who show up. Plus, there is a mysterious red dragon who may or may not be a figment of Fone’s imagination.

I can see why this series is so popular; It’s got charm, danger, romance, humor, stupid rat creators, and mystery. The color editions of the books are the ones to get. Having started with the colored editions, it would be hard for me to pick up the black-and-white releases and enjoy them as much as the ones I am reading.

It just struck me that my partner is missing volumes 7, 8, and 9. This may soon become a problem.

Second Opinions:
Running Mad
Capricious Reader
Book Lust

An online serial by Colin Matthew, Art by Terry Blas

Part 1 – The Prologue

Harley stood of the blood soaked body of Gordon Poe, president of the Wizards Convocation. Blood trickled down her chin. She smiled and looked up from the body to find Chase standing on the other side of the room with his wand raised, ready to strike.
“What are you waiting for,” Harley asked, stepping forward. She was only nineteen human years old. Her skin was pale and contrasted by her short, black hair cropped close to her head. The outfit she wore matched her hair, tight black jeans and snug hoodie with the initials J.K.W. embroidered above her left breast. “I just killed the world’s most powerful wizard. Do you really think you can stop me?” She took another step forward.
The young wizard, with his arm raised, poised to strike her down with a spell if only he could control his nerves, took a step back. “Why did you do it?”
A smile formed across her face. Her response was simple: “Personal reasons.”
Chase spoke up, regaining some of his nerve. “But why,” he asked. “Why has your kind stopped hunting humans and started attacking wizards?”
“It’s your blood. Human blood has weakened us. But wizard blood, it’s magical. It makes us strong again. The blood of a wizard eliminates the plague that has been a hundred years in the making. It’s a virus slowly eating away at us. You ever notice how we can’t turn in to bats anymore? Blame the virus. If we don’t hunt wizards, then vampires will soon be a thing of the past.” She looked at his wand. “Do you know how to use that thing? Or have you not gotten that far in your training?” In a flash, Harley leapt from where she stood and advanced toward Chase.
From the depths of his mind, Chase recalled the first spell he was taught, the spell taught to children in case they ever come face to face with a vampire. He summoned up the words and spoke them. The spell went off, illuminated the room in a bright light.
And then, everything went dark for Chase.

Almost a year ago I graduated with a degree in English and a minor in Writing. Needless to say, the degree means nothing unless you have something to show for it. That’s what i’ve been working on for the past year or so. I finished the first draft of my first novel about a month ago and have since started on the second draft. Last week was the first time I let someone other than myself see the first couple of chapters. My goal is to finish the 2nd draft by the end of July.

Additionally, starting later on today, I will be starting an online serial. My current plans are to post parts of it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and see how it goes. They’re are just going to be short story snippets. I’m also not planning ahead. That can either come back and bite in the ass later. We’ll see how this goes and if I like it.

Lastly, I’ve been reading less books because I’ve been trying to focus more on my writing. Do writers read? Surely they must. Just look at all the endorsements on the back of books from other authors. They wouldn’t say nice things about another book if they hadn’t read it, right?

Read the book? No
Seen the film? Yes

First of foremost, this is a fantastic film. I didn’t know if was based off of a book until much later on. From what I’ve heard from other people, this film is one of the rare occasions where the film is better than the book. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t agree or disagree.

Children of Men is set in the year 2027 and for some reason, no children have been born in the last 18 years. Theo Faron, played by Clive Owen, gets mixed up with his ex-wife (Julianne Moore) and joins her and her group of anti-government rebels smuggle a pregnant women to safety.

One of the things that stood out for me visually while watching the film was the single-shot sequences scattered through the film. That must have been a pain to film but the end results are fantastic.

Anybody read the book? Should I check it out?