I would like to give a nice warm greeting to any and all who click on this post through our new advertising program.  Please, feel free to peruse our site.  We hope - nix that, we know - that you will be interested in what we have to offer here.

Thank you for stopping by TRO, and don't be afraid to purchase a book if it strikes your fancy.  Both my partners and myself appreciate all the support we can receive. 

Also, feel free to become our fans on our facebook fan page.

Adios, my dear friends.

RJD

Tonight marks the last-ever episode of the second-best show ever on television. 

That's right:  after this evening, LOST is over.  For good.

It's such a bittersweet event.  I so love the show.  I've swallowed everything they've fed me over the last six years.  I've felt sorrow when characters leave, and conjectured with the rest about what it is, exactly, the whole point of the thing is.  It's been a long time running, a 100 hour movie, and to see it reach it's conclusion...well, I'll be there. 

And I'll be ready.

Some I've spoken to are worried about tonight.  Some assume that it won't end well, that it will be unsatisfying.  I'm not among those.  This season, I've thoroughly enjoyed every episode (even the "boring" Kate-centric one at the beginning of the season).  I love where they're taking it - it's actually much better than what I assumed they would do, which says something. 

So there you go.  Watch it, people.  Let Jack and Sawyer and Locke and company take you home.  And hopefully, we can see them go home, as well.  For what these characters have gone through over the last six seasons, they deserve some happiness.

Perhaps they'll receive it.  Finally.

RJD

So I see Artwiffy, the love of my life, onto a plane to California for a week.  This means I have oodles of free time to sit down and write and create and be as productive as hell.  As much as I'll miss her, I know this is a good thing and that with as much as I can get accomplished, I can relax and put aside the stress that completing countless projects otherwise entails.

So here, on this first day, have I written a single word other than this blog post?

Nope.

To mark the first day of being home alone with the dog, I decided it was SCARY MOVIE TIME!!  So I rented Daybreakers and Legion to let my mind vegetate for a bit.

I haven't watched Legion yet, but let me tell you, Daybreakers was FANTASTIC.  The premise was original, and the execution - despite the occasional foray into horror movie cliches - worked quite well.  I was more than a little surprised, given that I had heard nothing but bad things about this film.  It's definitely something I'd recommend to anyone with an appreciation for the genre.  Good and bloody and tense and even (slightly) emotional.  Ethan Hawke does a feasible job as the lead, and Willem Dafoe of course steals the show when he's on the screen.  Oh and Sam Neil plays a bad guy!  I don't think I've seen that since the final Omen movie, The Final Conflict, which was a nice change of pace.

So in closing, watch the film.  It's entertaining. 

Okay, I'm off to do more non-writing.  Peace!

RJD

Wahhhhhh DIO is dead...


Makes me sad .

-j.

That's right, the mega bookstore Barnes and Noble now has the novel available, and at an oddly discounted price.  Though I still prefer Amazon for sales, it seems like a good option.

Heck, more exposure can't hurt, can it?

Here's the link

RJD

Now, we here at TRO have started to make available a series of novel tie-in merchandise.  Simply visit the TRO Store and peruse the four items now available.  They are produced through Zazzle.com, and the products this company produces are all top-notch.

So come on, buy some stuff!  Show your support on the streets of your town, and help make this grassroots effort come alive.

Soon, folks.

RJD

I've come to realize that, no matter how much I've read in my life, it hasn't been enough.

My youth was consumed by Clive Barker, Stephen King, Anne Rice, H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, Richard Layman, and the like.  Pretty much, I dedicated myself to "genre fiction", and didn't stray too far outside that realm.

Later on, I discovered new (to me) arena's of fiction.  Walter Mosley - love him.  John Banville - ditto.  Carl Hiaasen - fantastic.  Michael Swanwick - Yum.  Neil Gaiman - modern-day goodness.  It was so fantastic to read these stories by these authors who, in my prejudiced, I would have written off as "uncool".

Now, I have jumped into the fray with Philip K. Dick - he of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which is the novel that the movie Blade Runner is loosely based on.  I am currently reading The Man in the High Castle, which is widely considered to be the seminal work of speculative alt-history fiction.  It is such a fantastic book, and I would suggest that anyone who wishes to broaden their horizons when it comes to literature should start up with him.  Dick writes from a dangerous place, and it is through this paranoia and preternatural understanding of human frailty and faults that makes (at least the novel I'm reading right now)  him great.

I will write a review of this book when I'm finished with it.  Until then, pick it up for yourself.  You'll be glad you did.

-RJD

Well, we got the first little write-up of the book, and it's from my friend and the novel's first editor, Michelle Howarth.  She is declining to review it until she's re-read the story (while finally not having to stare at a glowing screen), but she was nice enough to link our site (and The Fall's product page on the Brit Amazon), so take a look if you like.  Also, put aside the time to peruse some of Shelly's own work.  She's one of the most talented young authors I've ever met, and her sense of humor is sublime.

You can visit the site by clicking on this sentence and then go to her reading/reviews section.

Let's keep it going.

RJD

Here's a new favorite of ours (or, at least mine...thanks J!).  Let it inspire you!

RJD

Going to start working on the first chapter of the second book over the weekend, which means I may start posting some of the rough sketches up here so people can see how the images start compared to how they finish.   Should be interesting, since the feel of this book will be totally different from the last.

-j.