Fear the walking links

...and we're back. I got quite a bit done on my novel last month, though perhaps not as much as I would've liked. It's a slow process, at least for me, which is ironic since the first draft was written during National Novel Writing Month (which is next month), where speed is key to success. Maybe I've forgotten some of the lessons I've learned from that event; I don't know, but it's not like I'm writing this under a deadline. I made progress, which is what matters, and I expect to keep going.

We've reached the three-quarter mark of The One Year Switch and I knew I was gonna take a hit stats-wise last month, and I did. So be it. I think I've made whatever point I was making with the gimmick posts, so I'm gonna ditch them for the rest of the year, except for the profiles. Maybe I'll bring some of them back next year, depending on which ones were popular and which ones I liked doing.

This month, however, I thought I'd try one more thing I've never done before by devoting (almost) the entire month to classic horror movies. I've got nine of them tentatively planned, emphasis on "tentatively," but I don't anticipate any big scheduling problems. Plus, the two blogathons planned for this month will also tie into the classic horror theme. And now that Oscar season has begun in earnest, I expect to actually see some new movies, so I'll have that to write about once again in the new release round-up at month's end. So stick around; last month was a necessary lull, but we're gonna get back into the swing of things again. The fun begins in earnest October 5.

Big thanks to Fritzi from Movies Silently for assisting me with this month's banner. Go check out her blog for everything you'd ever wanna know about silent movies. She came up with the logo, but if you look closer, you can see she also made some splatter effects that make Karloff look even creepier. Cool, huh?

Lotta links this month:

Courtney thinks awards can be as much of a curse as a blessing. (And he's right.)

Danny knocks it outta the park with this review of Gold Diggers of 1933.

And then there was that time when Paddy met William Wellman as a kid. (Also, if you're in Toronto this week, check out Paddy's short play.)

If you need to shoot a movie in New York, you could do a lot worse than go to Staten Island for location shots.

Why do people in old movies talk weird?

Here's a review of a new book about the era of the video store.

The original cast of The Warriors recreate their cinematic ride from The Bronx to Coney Island.

The daughter of Leonard Nimoy, and her husband, are making a movie about her father with an emphasis on the disease that took his life through his many years of smoking.

In other Star Trek news, Nichelle Nicholls recently took a trip into space.

In preparation for Star Wars Episode VII (which I will write about here): I saw a Facebook conversation about how to watch the previous six Star Wars movies, and someone posted a link to this article, which offers a pretty good suggestion. Long but worth reading... if this sort of thing interests you.

EDIT 10.2.15: I wrote a short piece about my glorious writing career for the Newtown Literary blog.