Today is the day folks!  08.08.08 at 8:00 AM PACIFIC time.  Have those credit cards ready, have Amazon.com loaded because the fun begins today.

All that pimping for the last month finally comes to a head.  Click, don’t walk, to Amazon.com and get your copies of The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Badding’s Mystery by Tee Morris and Digital Magic by Philippa Ballantine.

Let’s make Pip’s birthday a good one and drive the Kiwi and the Sarge/Captain/Dwarf/man-with-too-many-hats up the charts.

With that said, let’s make today magical!

It’s 2008 and in the cinematic world we’ve had five different men play Batman.  Everyone has their favorite, from the all time classic antics of Adam West to the newest Dark Knight Christian Bale.  And between them we’ve seen Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney don the batsuit.  Of these five, only Bale and Keaton have been able to bring Batman’s raw, hard edged, half insanity to the screen and kept him dark, foreboding and down right creepy.  Narrowing it down even further, Bale seems to have taken the lead for the favorite under the mask.

We have certainly seen the best and the worst of the Caped Crusader.  Directors Tim Burton and Christopher Nolen have done best by the franchise while I’m of the opinion Joel Schumacher should have been drawn and quartered for what he did to the films in the 90’s.  Still it was Leslie H. Martinson who delivered Batman to the big screen in 1966 with pure comic campiness.

But what makes Batman so popular in the end that after having the series destroyed by Schumacher people flocked to Batman Begins and then helped The Dark Knight shatter box office records?  I like to think its accessibility.  Let me explain…

Bruce Wayne is human.  He’s not from another planet, he doesn’t have godly or alien blood, and he has no super powers.  He doesn’t have any powers at all.  He is simply a flawed human being.

All be it, a very rich one, where in lies some of his strength.  He can afford anything, from high tech costumes with sonar detection to an awesome utility belt.  What was it Nicholson’s Joker said “Where does he get those wonderful toys?”  Which does remind me that the only better than Batman’s gear is his villains.

Let’s take Joker for instance; he is the chaotic opposite of Batman.  He has money, else he wouldn’t have some of the stuff he has, but it’s the choices he made that make him Batman’s arch-nemesis.  Where Batman would do anything to prevent death, destruction and evil, Joker throws it around like confetti.  Bruce Wayne became Batman as a result of the tragic hand life dealt him and chose to ensure that what happened to him never happened to anyone else.  Joker decided to take what he was given in life and make everyone pay for any single wrong that was done to him.  The pure psychology behind Batman and his foes is mind boggling and insanely fascinating, no pun intended.

Cesar Romero embodied the more playful and less harmless Joker in the original series and film.  Jack Nicholson gave him more bite and venom in Tim Burton’s revival of Batman in 1989.  I have yet to see Dark Knight, but my understanding is that the late (and very much missed) Heath Ledger epitomized the role.  That he brought the true spirit of Joker’s mayhem to life and perfected it.

I could go on and on about Joker and he wasn’t even my favorite villain.  That would be Harley Quinn, whom I’m hoping to see eventually.  And still there’s so many villains left to choose from, including Catwoman, whom its been reported that Julie Newmar (the original Catwoman) would like to see Angelina Jolie in the roll should Christopher Nolen decide to bring in that villainess.

But, I digress and we’re discussing Batman here…

Batman endures through the ages because he’s normal.  He can be looked up to because he’s human, because he took a tragedy and did something good with it.  He’s a hero to be admired because he’s obtainable, not that I’m saying you should go disperse vigilante justice.  You don’t have to go through a personal tragedy to do good in your life, you only have to choose to do it.  He’s a role model if you will, even if he is a bit of an odd one.

He’s also in very good hands.  So let’s hope that the Batman franchise can continue to flourish under Nolen and Bale, because as thrilling as they have made the series, it’s certainly time well wasted.  And it’s one of my personal favorite ways to waste it.

Share your favorite things about the franchise with us in the comments.  Let’s hear it for Batman, long may he freak us all the hell out.

Update (1:15 pm)  It has been pointed out to me by Tony Mast of The Backseat Producers that I missed a pair of big screen Batmans.  In 1943 there was a 15 chapter serial with Lewis Wilson under the mask and in 1949 there was a Batman and Robin 15 chapter serial where we had Robert Lowery as the Caped Crusader.  These I would love to see.   Thanks Tony for letting us know.

There is only one word that works for Philippa Balantine’s Digital Magic.  It’s one I’ve used a lot in the last few hours.  MINDF***!  It’s a complete and total mindf*** and it doesn’t get any better than this.

I walked into this book blind.  All I knew was that it took place centuries after Chasing the Bard and totally makes up for how I felt about the ending of that story.  I will be honest, the first third of the book I kept wishing it had been two stories.  There’s so many characters and the story lines are so different that you want it to be two different books, one for Ella, Ronan and Bakari (YUMMY) and one for Aroha, Sally, Daniel and Nana.

I would get to the sections with Aroha and sag.  They made absolutely no sense and didn’t really seem to add anything to the story.  When I hit that second third of the book though I was so totally immersed and things started becoming so much clearer it wasn’t funny.  I saw hints of this book being a total mindf*** then but in the later third of the book you’re just slapped upside the head with it.  BLAM!  Crystal clear, perfect weaving of the story threads and me sitting there with my mouth open like a hungry frog.

I love stories that do this.  I’m the one who got in trouble for having The Sixth Sense figured out in fifteen minutes. Therefore I like nothing more than having a story smack me in the head with a clue-by-four just pages from the end.  It makes the story more worthwhile, more enjoyable, because you’re not sitting there knowing how it’s going to all end in chapter three.  On the whole, with everything I have read – or listened to – this year, this story delivers that punch in the form of a vicious upper-cut and I will sing the praises of the Kiwi Goddess all the more for it.

Interestingly enough I found, that while this is a squeal to Chasing the Bard, it’s not required to have read the Chasing the Bard to understand Digital Magic.  You get a fuller impact of the story, but I think Digital Magic would work just as well as a stand alone novel.  You may find that reading this one first, then going back and reading Chasing the Bard, may work better.  This only serves as a reminder that I need to add that book to my personal library as well.

I think having read this, Chasing the Bard, and many of the other small press publications, I’ve discovered that these podcasters that big name publishing has spent so much time scoffing at are better writers than some of the mass market publications I’ve read in the last few years.  Mind you, this doesn’t mean I’m giving up my Anne Bishop and Jacqueline Carey collections, or for that matter my new addiction to Scott Sigler, but I’m more inclined to look at these smaller press publications.  The writing has certainly been a hell of a lot better.

But that’s a tangent for another time.  For now I’m going to you with the blurb for Digital Magic and a reminder that you can pick this book up from Amazon.com on August 8, 2008 at 8:00 AM Pacific.  Unfortunately the economy keeps me from helping assist Philippa, and her cabana boy Morris, up the charts on Friday but it won’t keep me from sharing their excellent stories with you and hope that my enthusiasm and joy in these stories will make you curious enough to pick them up for yourselves.

The Fey are gone… and with them, magic. At least, that is how things seem at the conclusion of the award-nominated novel Chasing the Bard. ~ Lord what fools these mortals be. ~ Penherem is a quaint, sleepy English village where people go to escape the 21st Century. Hiding from the world of laptop computers, the Internet, and wireless communication, is Ella. A writer, now barren of ideas and drive, she resigns herself to a quiet life of solitude. Everything changes with the arrival of a shapeshifting thief. Suddenly, everyone begins to change–from the local librarian to the lady of the manor–revealing their true natures and dangerous secrets. Something in this sleepy English village is awakening… something that might be better left alone.

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Elizabethan England is one of my favorite times to read about and when Philippa Ballantine mixes it with the world of the Fae you get a captivating story. With main characters such as William Shakespeare, Puck and The Dark Goddess Sive you’re promised a good story, and the story delivers. The weaving of the tale, of the worlds, and Shakespeare’s interaction in both, makes me wonder if A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have been better as A Midsummer’s Nightmare.

I can genuinely say that Chasing the Bard is a splendid story, the worlds and characters are both well researched and well developed. Philippa displays a personal level of pleasure regarding the Bard in her writing, it breaths a certain fascination of Shakespeare from the pages when he’s on the scene. All the characters are so well created that you are left wondering who the real main character is, or is there a focus on a single character at all. Either way, the story works.

Having finished the book I found myself surprised. I love the story, I enjoy the characters, but I liked the villain, Mordant, more than I liked Sive. Pointedly, while I enjoyed Sive, I actually detested her. I found her to be a completely unlikable character with few redeeming qualities until you reach the last pages of the novel. To me she came off as self-centered and willing to stop at nothing to get just what she wanted, no matter who she had to use and run over to get it. This is not usually the case for me, I usually love the main characters.

That didn’t make the novel any less enjoyable. The other characters make up for Sive’s shortcomings by far. Eventually, as I said, she does become redeemable, but that doesn’t mean I liked her any better. That could easily have to do with my own favoritism toward Puck, so don’t judge the character simply by what I have to say about her. Try it out for yourself.

For the plot itself, as you know, I always feel that a blurb can speak better than I can, and this way I avoid spoiling an element as well:

Born into the human world with a gift; a gift that brings him to the attention of powers both dark and light from the World of the Fey, it is his burden to defend all the world.

Sive, the goddess of battle, hopes that he may be able to change the fate of her people.The Fey are dying, killed by something beyond the boundaries of worlds, and Sive will do anything to save them. So she enlists the help of her trickster cousin Puck to guard the child, and watch him grow into his gift. But a dark power imprisoned by human and Fey, plots to destroy both worlds, and unmake all that they have created.

Can one boy stop the destruction, even if he is William Shakespeare?

Currently Philippa is releasing the story via podcast in weekly episodes. We’re currently up to episode seven and it’s worth listening to. She’s got an excellent cast, each one with a dreamy voice of their own. I do encourage people to check it out and enjoy the story. If you get hooked and can’t wait to see how it all ends you can pick up the book here and here.

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I don’t have a lot right now.  I’m reading Digital Magic by the beloved Kiwi Philippa Ballantine and I’m hoping to have it finished and reviewed for you later this evening.  I’ll also be reposting my review of Chasing the Bard, before the one for Digital Magic.

In the meantime you can find some awesome little movie reviews by the Backseat Producers and Double Trouble here.  There’s a number of little pieces on site already and more to drop this week.  Listen, enjoy, and I’ll be back later.

I am a HUGE fan of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. Since having Jenn thrust Kushiel’s Dart into my hands I thought that I would never find a book or series that could surpass it in action and intrigue.

I was wrong.
Morevi, written by Lisa Lee and Tee Morris, surpasses the Kushiel series in both, and it has less pages. Though, that is just the humble opinion of this amateur blogger. I think my hands were glued to the book when I picked it up and I finally pulled myself loose upon reaching chapter 5 because I knew I would be up overnight reading had I not.

Admittedly I’ve been guilty of having this book in my possession, autographed even, and hadn’t cracked the book since Tee Morris signed and stamped it at DragonCon 2007. Since that time I’ve listened to Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword and listened to a few of Tee’s Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy podcasts, but the book hadn’t even been unpacked yet.

Now I can’t wait to get into the sequel, even though Jenn swears I’ll be throwing it… I’ll probably owe her another dinner.

Enough blather…

Morevi is an excellent blending of a fantasy world and Henry VIIIth’s England. Rich in the storytelling and ripe with adventure with well researched history and character names. The landscaping of the story is vivid enough it word that it takes no time for the imagination to supply not only the characters but the places with imagery.

And let’s admit it; it’s ripe with ideas for role-playing games and recipes.

Let the novel speak for itself however:

Across a mysterious rift in the space-time continuum exists a world called Naruihm. In this world is a realm called Morevi, a landlocked kingdom ruled by Askana Moldarin, crowned “First Queen” following a swift and bloody rise to the Throne of a Thousand Suns. Yet hidden traitors are already at work to destroy everything that she has won.

Enter Rafe Rafton, privateer captain of the Defiant. Arrogant. Overconfident. Dangerous and cunning enough to pillage the Queen’s own ships and survive. As a man, he is the embodiment of everything she has fought against, and the perfect instrument in a last desperate bid to save her kingdom.

With the sum agreed upon, Rafe and Askana embark on an epic adventure spanning the kingdoms of Naruihm and King Henry VIII’s England. Two souls, drawn together in the battle for a kingdom.

Get it. Read it. Love it. It’s an excellent source for wasting time.

If you’re like me, poor as a church mouse comes to mind, and if that’s the case try catching the Morevi podcast if you can’t afford the novel just yet.

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So the King of Social Media is at it again, and this time he brought a retinue.  JC Hutchins and Myxer.com, along with Jared Axelrod, Jim Perry, Mur Lafferty and many, many others have become MINErs.

Yes, that’s spelled right.  What they’ve done is create an awesome site full of pop culture and whale farts called MINE.  And what’s MINE is yours.  Not only have these people dug up some interesting content, but they ask people to send in links and information that they’ve dug up themselves.  Submitted content is always linked back to the person who sent it in with full credit.  So not only are the King and his retinue digging up things themselves, they’re sharing what they write about a submitted links with the person who simply said “Here, this is cool, write about it.”

Before you ask me if I’m nuts, which if you ask anyone who knows me I am, I actually do have evidence of this.  I sent in some information about “The Tales of Beetle the Bard” to JC over the weekend and found an excellent piece on MINE by JC that was credited back to me for sending him the link.  So they mean what they say, “What’s Mine is Yours.”

MINE stamped its presence on the internet with authority this summer.  The site is very easy to navigate and enjoyable to page through to see who’s come up with what and what others think of these nuggets of information.  That’s without even going into some of the original content offered, like Mur Lafferty’s Geekgasm; which leaves me wondering if the Mightiest of Murs sleeps; and Jared Axelrod’s “The Millennium Canon”.

MINE is worth checking out.  I’ve found tidbits of information there that I hadn’t seen on some of the more “professional” blogs that I read about entertainment.  If you have time, you should check it out, the short articles take only a few minutes to read, are written by some snarky and silly writers and the whole thing looks like it should go a very long way in the world of blogging.

Just try not to put my little corner of the blogosphere out of business, ok? 

After much thought over the last two days with no internets, I’ve declared this week to be Double Trouble Week.  During this week you’ll find reprints of books by Tee Morris and Philippa Balantine to gear everyone up for the great release on 08.08.08.

Yet, I promise you, these won’t be the only things we’re publishing this week.  There’s still the review of Digital Magic to come.  Plus Stories of the Third Wave, MINE, B is for Batman, and more.  We won’t be leaving out the new content while we share the old.

This will kick off later today with From the Archives – Morevi and I’ll return in a bit with “What’s Mine is Yours.”

…now if only I could figure out how to get my hands on autographed copies…stupid A/C and it’s bloody expensive fix…ah well, off to write about MINE.

What was that, Jer?  Did you say “Rafe”? Who the hell is Rafe?

Best line evar, in the best book I’ve read so far this year.  This, a single line that stuck out amid multiple instances of shattering the fourth wall, one liners to die for and an absolutely luscious librarian named Gertie, struck my funny bone like nothing else.

But where, oh where, can I find this literary masterpiece?  What book is it that you tease so skillfully about?  What author is it that you heap such high praise upon?

The book you can find on Amazon.com beginning on 08.08.08 at 8:00 AM Pacific time.  It’s called The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Baddings Mystery and is penned by none other than the Uber-Nemisis himself Tee Morris.

That quote above just got funnier didn’t it?  At least to those of you who are familiar with Rafe.  Still, this time we’re not discussing Rafe, we’re discussing the non-stop action contained within the JR Blackwell decorated covers of Pitcher’s Pendant.

Let’s begin there, shall we?  The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant.  I am not a baseball fan, and even knowing that this book was going to have something to do with baseball I was anticipating it.  What I was not anticipating was finding the stats, game and information surrounding 1920’s baseball interesting.  Hellfire I may even turn on a baseball game next season and actually cheer for a team I proclaim to like.

Gah, sorry for the tangent, see what you’ve done Morris, you made me interested in baseball!  Back to the book…

The gang’s all here, Billi, Mick, Miranda, Al and even Chief O’Malley.  The case is a dream job for our Dwarf detective, dropping him head first into the world of professional baseball with prime seats at Wrigley Field.  Kicked back like a Prince among men, Billi is all set to do some investigating of the Baltimore Mariners, the up and coming rookies of the Major League, when the stench of magic taints Baddings’ easy case.

Bound within approximately 250 pages, the action doesn’t wane in Pitcher’s Pendant.  The adventure and intrigue are non-stop, (reminding me why I said before that Tee Morris did intrigue better than Jacqueline Carey), and the pieces of this puzzle don’t fit together as neatly as you think.

Billi’s over his head in this installment of the Billibub Baddings Mysteries and I’ll go so far as to say this is the best piece of fiction that Tee has put forth.  With all of that said, I have two questions left over.

One – How long is the wait for the next one?

Two – Where can I get the recipe for Mick’s chili? 

And finally, an absolutely huge thank you to Tee Morris for making an advanced copy available to Time Well Wasted.  We wish the best of luck to the Double Trouble team in the storming of Amazon’s charts on 08.08.08.

Remember you can order your copy of The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Baddings Mystery from Amazon.com on 08.08.08 starting at 8 AM Pacific time.  Help a fantastic podcasting author storm the charts, I know I will.

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