Author: Travis Heermann

Author Interview Series #20 – Jeff Strand

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Writing Posted on admin

Jeff Strand is one of those rare writers who can gleefully combine comedy with horror and the macabre. Some reviewers even say his stuff defies classification. For me personally, writers who find their niche and pull it off with flying colors are an inspiration. The downside is that big-ticket mainstream publishing does not see enough dollar signs to give writers like Jeff Strand the credit he deserves. At least not until recently. Jeff just signed a mass market book deal with Leisure Horror for his book Pressure, due out in June 2009. One of the sweetest spots in reading isContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #20 – Jeff Strand

Author Interview Series #19 – Maryann Miller

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Writing Posted on admin

Maryann Miller is one of those writers who labors for sheer love of the craft. It’s evident that she pursues a variety of creative outlets, while keeping the day job, as so many authors are forced to do. I first encountered her through our publisher, Five Star Publishing. We also share the experience of having a number of things not quite work out, but yet we struggled through it and persevere. There’s a lesson in there for struggling newbies. Just keep doing it. You’ll get better. Opportunities will appear. And your creative efforts will be rewarded.

Author Interview Series #15 – Pat Kapera

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Writing Posted on admin

Pat Kapera has been a familiar figure around the gaming industry for some years. His biggest splash to date has been the Spycraft Role-Playing Game, a high-tech, James Bond-meets-Man from U.N.C.L.E-meets-Mission: Impossible espionage game. He has also worked on some of the most prominent licensed properties in the hobby gaming industry, including the Battlestar Galactica RPG. The hobby gaming market is a HUGE potential market for fledgling writers, as a many of the game companies are actively looking for talented, creative writers who love the industry. It’s a great place to get some experience and writing credits. The downside isContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #15 – Pat Kapera

Author Interview Series #1 – Joe R. Lansdale

Cat Links Author Interviews, General, Movies, Writing Posted on admin

I am tremendously pleased to post the inaugural installment of my author interview series. Joe R. Lansdale is perhaps best known as the author behind Bubba Hotep. Can I get an Elvis impersonation here? But he’s also written dozens of short stories, books, comics, and screenplays, including some of the best known novels in horror fiction, such as The Nightrunners. All that, and he’s a darn nice fella. So, let’s take o’ bidness.

Writer Interview Series – Coming Soon!

Cat Links General, Writing Posted on admin

I’m putting together a list of authors for an idea I had the other day for developing some really useful juicy material for this blog, which covers, but heretofore hasn’t focused on, the topic of writing in general. Over the coming year, I’m going to be shifting its focus, and I thought a great place to start off with that would be to interview experienced authors with some published credits and awards. My plan over the coming months is to interview a series of authors about the life and business of a writing as a career. My questions will focusContinue readingWriter Interview Series – Coming Soon!

New Publication in Cemetery Dance Magazine

Cat Links General, Writing Posted on admin

So it’s been a good day, and another milestone for my efforts at writing fiction. That is, my first short fiction publication in a print magazine. My horror short story, “That Long Black Train” will be appearing in Cemetery Dance magazine sometime in 2008, and I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve had a couple of sales to online journals, and I’m happy about those too, but print magazines are still where it’s at in the writing business. So all you other struggling writers out there, take heart! It can be done! For you horror and dark fantasy readers, check outContinue readingNew Publication in Cemetery Dance Magazine

Heart of the Ronin – New Novel in Spring ’09

Cat Links General, Writing Posted on admin

Since this is my blog, I am quite happy to use it to toot my own horn. It is with great satisfaction that I announce my next publication. My novel, Heart of the Ronin will be published in hardcover in Spring 2009 by Five Star Publishing. More information on this will likely appear in this ol’ Groove in the months and weeks to come, but you heard it here first! And oh, yeah, the novel in a nutshell. This will be the first novel in The Ronin Trilogy. In a nutshell, it is Excalibur meets The Seven Samurai. John BoormanContinue readingHeart of the Ronin – New Novel in Spring ’09

Flash Gordon Doesn’t Flash, Just Fizzles

Cat Links General, Movies Posted on admin

Yes, it’s been a blue moon since my last post, but that‘s actually a good thing for me, because it means I’ve been busy the last couple of months. The thing that‘s been on my mind lately is how horribly the Sci-Fi Channel has not only failed, but soiled, one of the great icons of science fiction. As a kid, I lived for the Flash Gordon animated series on Saturday morning. When the most recent movie came out in 1980, I had that Queen soundtrack and actually wore out the cassette. I spent countless hours drawing Flash Gordon rocket shipsContinue readingFlash Gordon Doesn’t Flash, Just Fizzles

How NOT to suck as a Fiction Writer – Or, Basic Lies 101

Cat Links General, Writing Posted on admin

I’ve had the good fortune recently to be doing some submission reviews for The Harrow, an online horror fiction journal. My task is to review and critique manuscripts submitted for publication. I’m also a member of Critters.org, a website where SF/F and Horror writers can have their works reviewed and critiqued by their peers. I must say, it’s a great experience on many levels to read the work of struggling writers out there, not to mention having my own stuff critiqued on Critters. I’m good, but I’m not Ray Bradbury or Harlan Ellison. Give me another 35 years. Maybe somedayContinue readingHow NOT to suck as a Fiction Writer – Or, Basic Lies 101

Hell-bent for Leather! Ghost Rider – Movie Review

Cat Links Movies Posted on admin

Now, for one of the coolest comic book movies ever! I’ve been a fan of Marvel Comics since I was a little kid. Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, I loved them all. And the movies in recent years have overcome some of the appalling crappiness that so plagued super hero movies in the decades preceding CGI (with the exception of the first two Christopher Reeves Superman movies and Tim Burton’s first Batman movie, which were awesome.) The first Spider-Man movie blew everyone away because it really was Spidey. (X-Men was great too, but I have to say that Spidey 1 andContinue readingHell-bent for Leather! Ghost Rider – Movie Review

A Feast of Crows – The Messenger – Movie Review

Cat Links Movies Posted on admin

It’s always nice to come out of a movie pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The inverse is more often the case, especially with Hollywood horror movies in recent years. More often you go in, expecting it, but hoping against hope that it won’t. The Messenger, recently released Hollywood horror movie, is a horror movie well worth seeing. Its a haunted house story of a family that leaves their city life behind to pull up stakes and move to Middle of Nowhere, North Dakota, to start a sunflower farm. Starring Dylan McDermott as Roy, the father, Penelope Ann MillerContinue readingA Feast of Crows – The Messenger – Movie Review

Children of Men – Bladerunner for the 21st Century? No. More.

Cat Links Culture, Movies Posted on admin

I can count the instances on one hand where I left the movie theater shocked and moved to the core of my being. Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket. Some of the most powerful movies ever filmed. Add another to this list. Children of Men takes you by the throat from the opening moments and tightens its grip, slowly, inexorably, holding you enthralled, tense, and utterly in its grip for the next two hours of your life. Emerging from the theater both shocked and feeling as if something had shifted within me, I’ve spent the last several hours digestingContinue readingChildren of Men – Bladerunner for the 21st Century? No. More.