The Book Was Better

“I just saw the movie, wasn’t a patch on the book.”

If I’d stuffed my face with a deep-fried Mars bar every time I heard this sentiment, I’d probably lose a weigh-in with an elephant seal, have a mouthful of teeth with the average consistency of a sea sponge, and skin the overall texture of pepperoni by now. I’ll bet every last one of us has said something similar, though. Which makes every last one of us a bit weird, really. Not quite stupid, but getting there, you know?

Let me explain my thinking. (I find I have to do that a lot, which says nothing good about me whatsoever.)

It’s actually quite simple. A book is a book. A movie is a movie. And Popeye is what he is… an extremely odd-shaped sailor with a fetish for canned green vegetables.

Seriously, though, “the book was better” has become one of those irksome knee-jerk phrases that are stand-ins for something else entirely. See: “it’s political correctness gone mad!” which actually means “damn, the world doesn’t condone my bigotry any more, so I’ll just have this here tantrum instead”. Or: “I knew them before they were famous” which translates as “I am an unctuous hipster and will drip oily, corrosive scorn on, you know, like, everyone not in the inner circle of me, dude.” Continue reading “The Book Was Better”

Book Interactive – by Ryan Grassley

In January I took a motorcycle ride from sea level to the top of highest mountain in Panama. Normally I film these adventures and post them on my YouTube channel. But in an effort to better monetize my content I decided to turn this adventure into a book. The ride up the volcano was the most difficult road I had ever attempted. I dumped the bike 15-20 times on the steep, rocky road. It was a horrible, exhausting, dangerous ride, and everything an adventure should be.

I have often been asked about DVDs of my videos or a book of my adventures. I feel DVD is a dead format, and I couldn’t share my videos in a book. When Apple announced iBooks 2 it sounded perfect for what I wanted to do. Continue reading “Book Interactive – by Ryan Grassley”

Week 11 Flash Fiction Contest Winner: Shiri Sondheimer

Today we’re pleased to announce the winner of the 11th weekly Flash Fiction competition at Indies Unlimited.

The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.

A total of 97 votes were cast in the contest this week. The winner (with 39% of those votes) is: Contestant #3 Shiri Sondheimer.

Congratulations to Shiri, and thanks to everyone who participated – excellent entries! Now, without further ado, (release balloons) here’s the winning entry: Continue reading “Week 11 Flash Fiction Contest Winner: Shiri Sondheimer”