Category: My Favorite Things

More comic book heroes, less reality housewives on television please!

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I have been, for lack of s better term, “geeking” out the past few weeks. Between the new trailer for Season 9 of Doctor Who, Stars Wars Episode VII concept art and behind the scenes video and the announcement Matt Ryan (aka John Constantine) is coming to this season of Arrow has been exciting.

We live in an age when sci-fi/fantasy is more and more prevalent on TV and movies. Some are saying its too much but I say it’s about time.

kampfstern-galactica-poster_articleBack in the 70s/80s, when I was growing up, there wasn’t a huge following for the genre. Sure, we had classic shows like the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, the Six Million Dollar Man and Kolchak: The Night Stalker (my personal favorite as that series influenced me to a writer); but along with that we had flops like Manimal, Automan, Spider-man and the incredibly awful Justice League and Captain America TV movies.

CGI and improved make-up and special effects have brought the sci-fi/fantasy genre new life. In this era of reality shows upon reality shows, I love the new line up coming to TV. There are too many shows about rich housewives from New York and LA, rich wives of doctors and basketball players and every Kardashian alive today.

Shows like Arrow, The Flash, Gotham and Grimm have made an impact on television with great characters and equally masterful writing by people who are true geeks. It’s really bring geeks and non-geeks together to support these great shows.

That’s been the trouble with shows in the past. They never stuck to the heart of the story. They just slapped the characters on TV with a few cheesy special effects and called it a day.

Writing is just as important in fantasy/sci-fi shows and movies. Ant-Man and Fantastic Four are two great examples where story matters. Though it took them six years to bring Ant-Man to the silver screen, it was a great combination of humor, action and drama. On the other hand, How someone can royally screw up the “first family of superheroes” THREE times is beyond me.

maxresdefaultThis year, they’re adding Supergirl, DC Legends of Tomorrow and Heroes Reborn into the mix. These are just a few of what’s to come for comic book television, with the Teen Titans coming to TNT down the road and Fox working on an X-Men TV series. Let’s face it, it’s exciting to be a geek right now.

Family will always be there to give you advice, raise your spirits or kick you in the butt when you need it

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f0ccc3b6-4243-49a0-878d-11e449bd63aeI’d like to take a moment to talk about family. Family is at the heart of the Forever Avalon series. It’s the very core of my own life experiences and I can’t imagine what my world would be like without it.

Everyone has their own experiences when it comes to family, both good and bad. I can honestly say I’ve been on both sides and I’d like to think that it’s made me the man I am today.

Through writing, I’ve tried to share my love for my family through my stories. It’s not the exact picture of the perfect little family, but what is? They have been, and always will be, an inspiration to me. My family kept me strong during long deployments with their love and support. I kept that going through my novels, Forever Avalon and The Dark Tides.

In this excerpt from The Dark Tides, I wanted to show how family comes together in times of adversity and demonstrates the strength of love, faith and courage. Caution, SPOILERS!

***

Bryan and Stephanie stepped outside their tent, where Ashley, Andrew, Rose and Edan are waiting. Bryan looked over at Edan and saw he was holding Rose’s hands as he talked to her. Before Bryan could say anything, Sarafina and Hunter joined them, bringing the whole family together.

“Captain O’Brian, are the guns ready to go?” Bryan asked.

“Yes milord, we have 20 canons with about 100 rounds each standing by.”

“Good, stick to the plan. If I have any changes in my orders, I’ll relay messages to you through Maverick, alright?”

“Yes Gil-Gamesh, it will be done,” he said with a bow. As he turned to depart, Rose ignored protocol and, in clear defiance of her parents, kissed him goodbye. Once Captain O’Brian was gone, Bryan glared at Rose, but he knew this wasn’t the time or place for it.

As they gathered together, Hunter broke the silence hanging in the air. “The King asked me to tell his Grandpa good luck today,” Hunter quipped. Everyone just laughed at that, except for Ashley and Rose who were in the dark. “Ask Mom, she’ll explain it to you later.”

“I’m not going to say anything except to tell you all how proud I am of each and every one of you,” Bryan told them. “You have all grown and matured into the best I could have ever hoped for in my children … that includes all of you!” he added, looking directly at Sarafina and Andrew.

“I never really believed in fate or destiny until I arrived on Avalon. Though I still believe that we are in control of our own future, everything that happened has led us to here and now. No matter what, this doesn’t end here. This is only the beginning.”

Bryan’s words inspired them as they hugged each other one last time before leaving … brother and sister, parents and children, husband and wife. Hunter and Andrew head off with Sarafina, leaving on the Gil-Gamesh as he said one last goodbye to Stephanie.

“I love you husband,” she said as she kissed him.

“I love you wife,” Bryan added with their traditional goodbye.

He turned to leave while Ashley, Rose and Stephanie headed toward the hospital. “Okay, now what was Hunter talking about?” Rose asked. “Is Bowen his …”

“Uh-huh …” Stephanie interrupted, trying to be discrete.

“You mean, Hunter and the Queen, they …”

“Yes …” Stephanie cut her off before she said anything out loud.

“Holy …” Ashley cursed.

“Oh that little player,” Rose quipped as they continued to gossip amongst themselves.

***

The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

My top five fantasy/adventure movie “guilty pleasures” I love to watch

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Guilty pleasures can vary from person-to-person, from something as simple as a favorite pint of ice cream to a cheap cigar. Movies are a favorite guilty pleasure of mine. There are some movies that most people would consider a waste of time, but I think of them as a great way to spend an Saturday night.

To me, the 1980s has the best guilty pleasure movies out there. They were at the forefront in special effects, any topic or storyline was fair game and the actors were cheesy and formulaic … The perfect combination for a guilty pleasure movie.

RottenTomatoes.com rates movies both good and bad, however their rating system doesn’t account for “guilty pleasure” movies. Here’s my list of my top five “Guilty Pleasure fantasy/adventure movies of the 80s” and how they are rated.

images (1)5. Conan the Destroyer (1984) – As bad movies go, this tops the list as one of the worst sequels ever made, right up there with Superman III and Batman and Robin (another Arnold snooze-fest). But how can you say no to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Wilt Chamberlain in a classic one-on-one duel to the death. Add in Grace Jones in all her badness as a female warrior and Sarah Douglas as the evil Queen and you’ve got a wicked guilty pleasure movie. You will never forget the argument about Malak’s “brother’s sister’s cousin!” (Rotten Tomatoes 26%, 1 1/2 stars)

p8697_p_v7_aa4. Red Sonja (1985) – Since there was no traction for a third “Conan” movie after the last bomb, Arnold teamed up with Sylvester Stallone’s girlfriend Brigitte Nielsen and his “Conan” love interest Sandahl Bergman to bring another Robert E. Howard character to the silver screen, Red Sonja. So bad ass warriors, evil queen, magic orb … Check! Arnold got to flex his muscles as Sonja’s love interest Kalidor. The best part of this movie was Ernie Reyes Jr. who played Prince Tarn, a spoiled little prince with awesome Kung fu fighting skills. (Rotten Tomatoes 18%, 1 star)

p4895_p_v7_aa3. Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) – This is the movie with the coolest sword of any “sword and sorcery” movie in the 80s. I mean, the blades shot out, how cool is that? It starred Lee Horsely, of another 80s classic Matt Houston TV series, as Talon, a mercenary who rediscovers his royal heritage’s dangerous future when he is recruited to help a princess foil the designs of a brutal tyrant and a powerful sorcerer in conquering a land. So, bad-ass warrior, damsel in distress and evil sorcerer … Everything a fantasy movie needs. The movie also starred Richard Lynch, who played a bad guy in practically every role he ever played, and your totally awesome popcorn movie night is complete! (Rotten Tomatoes 80%, 4 stars)

images (2)2. The Beastmaster (1982) – First off, this movie had an awesome cast … Marc Singer, Rip Torn, John Amos and the lovely Tanya Roberts (between Charlie’s Angels and Sheena). Again, the formulaic bad-ass warrior goes after despot ruler with a mix of magic and, this time, animals. Dar (Singer) can control animals with his mind. His pet tiger, hawk and ferrets make for a fun movie. The weirdest thing that sticks out in my mind about this movie is the witches that work for Maax (Torn) who have these incredibly sexy bodies with incredibly ugly faces. Gross! (Rotten Tomatoes 42%, 2 stars)

krull-poster1. Krull (1983) – My number one guilty pleasure could actually be classified as a sci-Fi/fantasy movie because instead of a tyrant warlord or evil sorcerer, you have both wrapped up in a giant alien called The Beast. He travels from world to world in his fortress and army of Slayers. Of course, he kidnaps the beautiful princess and tries to convince her to be his queen and rule the planet of Krull (hence the name). She, in turn, is waiting for her handsome prince to rescue her and save the day using a magical weapon called the Glaive. Okay, like Beastmaster, this movie had an all-star cast of “before they were famous” British actors … Liam Neeson, Robbie Coltrane, Freddie Jones, Alun Armstrong to name a few. Pre-CGI effects were handled very well in this movie. The Glaive was a very cool weapon when he finally used it at the end of the movie, but overall, this is a quality movie night guilty pleasure. (Rotten Tomatoes 33%, 1 1/2 stars)

There are a few honorable mentions out there … Dragonslayer (1981), Ladyhawke (1985), and, of course, the incomparable Highlander (1986), with the best soundtrack in a fantasy movie EVER! What’s your favorite guilty pleasure movie? Let me know in the comments below!

Dungeons and Dragons is a great tool for creating fantasy characters

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STK463898Characters are the driving force behind every story. If you don’t have great characters–strong, inviting, mysterious and like able–people are not going to read your stories. That’s the one thing I really have to attribute to my early days of playing Dungeons and Dragons. It helped me design characters and weave their stories together to make them almost real in the game.

Character creation is an essential part of the D&D. From the very start, you take basic characteristics–strength, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence and charisma–and use them as building blocks. These traits determine what type of person you are. Are you smart or wise, fast or strong, like-able or trustworthy? Add in that an alignment, from Lawful Good to Neutral to Chaotic Evil, and you have a fantasy character of your very own.

The protagonist in the Forever Avalon series is Lord Bryan MoonDrake, the Gil-Gamesh of Avalon. He has two identities within the story, that of a Sailor and as a Warrior/Wizard. The later aspects of his personality came from one of the best characters I ever created in D&D.

His name is Luna Moonstone, a Half-Elf Fighter/Thief/Magic-User. He was a bad ass, one of the best characters I ever rolled, and everything about him inspired the Gil-Gamesh. A lot of the magic items and weapons he used in-game, I brought over to Forever Avalon, including Whirling Death, the Cloak of Thieves and the Gauntlets of Stone Giant.

Sorry, I digressed … I get nerdy when I start talking D&D. In any case, it was these games that helped me develop such wonderful characters for Forever Avalon and The Dark Tides. In a look ahead to my next book in the Forever Avalon series, The Outlander War, I am pulling out my old character sheets and bringing another of my old D&D characters to life in my trilogy.

One of the most powerful characters I ever created in D&D was a half-Orc fighter. He is special to me because I rolled a perfect 18/00 for his strength and, anyone who’s played D&D knows how hard that is.

He is a sword master, proficient in the use of every type of sword. He collects the swords of his enemies, hanging them in a special vault in his keep, just so he can constantly laud over his many victories. This creature is evil, mean and rotten to the core. In his mind, he has no peers and he lives by one ethos; only the strong survive and he is the strongest there is.

He has a scar across his face, from his right temple to his left cheek. It was given to him by his mother, who tried to kill him at birth. She was stopped by her grandfather. He noticed that the baby didn’t cry out, even after being wounded. The old man took the child to raise into a great warrior.

He is a General amongst men, leading through fear an intimidation. His name is Ben-Farst; now, that being said, there will be some changes made.

First and foremost, I am not using Orcs in my series. Orcs were a creation of J.R.R. Tolkien and not a part of any cultural mythology. I don’t want to bring something into Avalon just to use a popular race from RPGs and other fantasy novels. So for The Outlander War, he will be a half-demon instead.

Next, his name. I honestly don’t remember how I came up with he name Ben-Farst, but I got grilled and taunted for it on a regular basis. I know “Ben” was the name of the grandfather that raised him and “Farst” was a knockoff of farce, because he was rejected by both man and Orc. I want to keep something from him but make it match his new persona as a half-demon. So, I am going with the name Abdel Ben Faust.

Abdel is Arabic for Servant and Faust is associated with Hell so I think “Servant of Hell” fits perfectly for a ruthless half-demon military commander; but I’m also keeping Ben to illustrate that there is a human side to him.

So how does General Abdel Ben Faust fit into the world of Avalon? You’ll have to wait until next year and The Outlander War to find out! In the meantime, catch up on what’s happening on the island of Avalon in my latest book, The Dark Tides!

The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Happy Fourth of July! It’s okay to be patriotic!

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Happy 4th of July!

First and foremost, I want to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! I hope your weekend is filled with fireworks, barbecue, family and friends. As a retired veteran, I am always proud to be a part of our nation’s birthday. I like to think it’s a sense of pride, although some in the world today might see it more as arrogance.

Is it arrogant to be proud and patriotic? I don’t think so. People have pride in their looks, in the job they do, in celebrating achievements through life, like graduations. What’s wrong with pride in one’s country?

To me, that pride is transcendent of not only who you are but where you live. People who come to America from other countries are proud of their heritage but that changes when they raise their hand and take the oath to become American citizens. I’ve witnessed such a ceremony and, believe me, it’s a very emotional moment when an immigrant proudly calls him/herself an American for the first time.

In the Forever Avalon series, Lord Bryan MoonDrake starts out as a simple Sailor, devoted to God, duty, country and family, while serving in the U.S. Navy. That patriotism—that pride—transcends when he finds himself stranded on Avalon, after he discovered his extraordinary  lineage with one of the original Knights of the Round Table.

At that moment, he changed his loyalty, devotion to duty and his patriotism from the United States of America to Avalon. Though his world changed completely for him, he took it in stride as he stepped up and assumed the mantle of the Gil-Gamesh. Instead of answering to the President of the United States, he now answered to the King of Avalon.

This may seem simple enough plotline for a story but it’s really not. A lot of thought and emotion goes into decisions like this. The real question is, what happens if those loyalties are tested?

This is a tease for the next installment of the Forever Avalon series I’m currently working on, tentatively title The Outlander War! I hope to have it finished by the end of the year. Now, those of you who’ve read The Dark Tides know what little twist I’m talking about; and for those of you who haven’t read it yet, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to pick up my book. I guarantee that, after you do, you’ll be eagerly anticipating the third book.

In any case, I guess what I was really trying to say is that, though it may not be “politically correct” to be patriotic anymore, I wear it with a great deal of pride. I am proud to have served my country, I am proud to live in the greatest nation on the planet and I am definitely proud to be an American. Have a safe and happy Independence Day! God bless you and God bless the United States of America!

The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

How pizza, beer and late night “Dungeons and Dragons” sessions started my writing career

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dungeons_dragons-5I was first introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in 1981, as a college student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I got in with a small group of friends who spent their weekends eating pizza, drinking beer and playing D&D. One of my friends was nicknamed Frodo, which tells you a lot about them.

I was hooked instantly. I played constantly, learning everything I could about the game. I bought all the manuals, dice, Dungeon Master boards and graph paper for drawing out dungeons. I even had a Crown Royal bag for carrying my dice, something most D&D players from that era can relate to. It was an obsession.

Unfortunately, I think my over-indulgence in D&D led to troubling issues of living on my own for the first time. I left college and returned home, but I brought D&D with me. I introduced it to my friends at home and we started having all-nighters. That led to low job opportunities and zero prospects of returning to college.

Are you starting to see a pattern here? Well, so did my parents. My father, a retired U.S. Marine, pointed me towards military recruiters. Reluctantly, I did and I soon found myself enlisted in the U.S. Navy; and guess what, I brought D&D with me again.

After I graduated boot camp, I was assigned to Journalist “A” School, where I introduced my shipmates to D&D. We spent our off duty hours playing the game, drinking beer and eating pizza. My first duty station as a young Sailor was the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, where once again, I got in with a group of Sailors and played D&D.

68171_10204763840443258_1258278380228746833_n

Me in the SITE-TV studio aboard USS Forrestal circa 1986

I think you can see my obsession forming here. D&D consumed my time, especially when we were underway and there was nothing to do. You have to remember, this was before the Internet, email, satellite TV, or video game consoles.

I know you’re wondering why I went to all this length to tell you about how, as a young adult, I was obsessed with D&D. Well, that’s where the story really begins. It was all those late night, weekend long, D&D sessions that led to me writing my two novels, Forever Avalon and The Dark Tides.

I tell this story every time I’m interviewed about my novels, but I wanted to tell it one last time so everyone can understand where the ideas for my stories came from.

I always thought that I had a big imagination. As a teenager, I was creating my own superheroes and I originally wanted to be the next Stan Lee or Jack Kirby.

Playing D&D took it to a whole other level. As a Dungeon Master, I created whole worlds, ever-changing scenarios and formidable characters to challenge the players.

During my first deployment on the Forrestal, I was playing almost nightly, every day while off duty. At the same time, I was missing my wife and newborn baby girl terribly. It was the first time I was separated from family and it was heart-wrenching. That led to some seriously disturbing dreams.

I started dreaming about being stranded on a deserted island; an island filled with the magical fantasy found in D&D. Soon, my wife ended up on the island with me and we had to survive and adapt to living there together.

Over the years, as my children grew, they started to invade my dream. I had that same dream nightly, whenever I was underway, at-sea, away from home; even though I stopped playing D&D altogether in the 90s.

One of the strange things was that, in my dream, I found myself living as one of my best characters I ever created in D&D, a half-elf, chaotic good, fighter/thief/magic user called Luna Moonstone. It was that character that started it all.

After my last deployment in 2001, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, I decided to start writing the dream down and developing it into a story. It took me almost five years to finish my first novel, Forever Avalon, but I did it. I based the Drake family on my own and the rest just fell into place.

After I finished writing Forever Avalon, the dream ended. I haven’t had the dream since then. There was a purpose behind the dream, super-charged by an imagination fueled by D&D and the separation of a family. This is what gave birth to the world of Forever Avalon. I know I can continue the story for everyone to enjoy the adventures of Lord Bryan MoonDrake, the Gil-Gamesh, and his family.

The main thing I wanted to say, through all of this, is that whatever your inspiration is, follow your dream and it will be there for you.

Forever Avalon is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.The Dark Tides is now available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iUniverse.

Keeping the history of our world alive through literature

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TARDISat60FathomsDid you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time? I get that feeling all the time. It’s probably why I am such a huge fan of Doctor Who. I could spend a thousand lifetimes travelling throughout history to see everything imaginable. I want to stare in awe at the building of the pyramids or laugh with Queen Elizabeth while watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Globe Theater; but I also want to bear witness to the horrors of humanity as well. From the Holocaust to the “Trail of Tears,” there are events we must never forget or else we may repeat them.

That’s something I hate about the “PC” world we live in today. To ensure we don’t hurt people’s “feelings” or make them feel inadequate about themselves, some people are trying to rewrite history to make it conform to popular thinking. The movie Interstellar had a great example of this when a teacher tried to explain that the moon landings were faked just so the U.S. would win the Cold War. Ridiculous!

I know they’re not teaching this in schools but, you have to admit, it’s a real possibility. There are people out there today who think events like the Holocaust and the moon landings were faked, created by the government  to control people. That’s like saying Africans weren’t thrust into slavery, they walked on those boats of their own free will.

You can’t change history, and if we try to, we are a failure as a society and as writers. We take history and make it real through our stories, myths and legends. There are books that tell the story of a generation within their pages: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, and Gone with the Wind just to name a few.

Even by taking liberties with history, we are telling a very important story. One of my favorite authors of alternate history is Harry Turtledove. He takes one event in time and changes it, then follows it to fruition from past to present. The best example of this is in my favorite book of his, How Few Remain.

51FRPAQSB6LThe novel starts with a Confederate courier, carrying the plans laid out by General Robert E. Lee, wrapped around some cigars. In history, the courier dropped those cigars where they were picked up by a Union Soldier, revealing Lee’s plans to the Union Army, thus winning the war for the United States; but that’s where the twist comes in. If those plans were never lost, could the South have succeeded in winning the Civil War? Turtledove picks up ten years later, with a divided  country heading into another war but with England and France as allies of the Confederacy and Germany allying itself with the U.S.A. Through the next 11 books, he takes you through the Industrial Revolution, World War I, the Depression and ending at World War II, but with a very different but equally shocking Holocaust as African-Americans became the victims of a ruthless Confederate regime that acted like Nazis, sending them to gas chambers and mass graves.

Even in a twisted universe like that one, there are still lessons from our world history written into every word. This is our mission in life as writers. We cannot change the past but we can write about it so that, generations from now, people will know how we lived, laughed and loved … That is until The Time Machine is invented, but H.G. Wells timetable is way off by now!

Hooray for Hollywood, now get to work and make my favorite book into a movie!

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Hollywood has been on a roll lately with one blockbuster after another of sci-fi, fantasy or comic book origins; but lately, it seems like Hollywood is running out of ideas by remaking older movies rather than making new ones. It’s not like they’re remaking movies from 40-50 years ago. Instead, they’re remaking (or as they like to call reimagining) movies from the 80’s like Terminator, Point Break and Poltergeist.

With the success of Game of Thrones on television and The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit in theaters, there are some great fantasy novels out there just ripe for transitioning to the silver or TV screen, that have yet to be adapted.

Unfortunately, some series are so huge and all-encompassing that adapting them would mean some parts of the books would be edited out and you know how fans hate that. In any case, here’s my list of the top five medieval fantasy novels that need a big screen adaptation. I know that some people will disagree with my choices but, if you do disagree, please let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear what I might have missed.

Sword_of_shannara_hardcover#5 – Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks: Though some consider the series a direct rip-off of Lord of the Rings, I am one to let the Terry Brooks series to stand on its own. It takes you on an incredible journey through the Four Lands, fighting warlords and ousting wicked brothers from their throne … Everything a fantasy novel asks for. A visually stunning and epic story that deserves its own adaptation.

COMIC_elfquest_book_01#4 – Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini: I know most of you are wondering why Elfquest is on my list when there’s been a movie in the works for years. That’s exactly why it is on the list. This movie has been on again/off again since 2008. Let’s get it done already! Elfquest is an award winning, cult following comic book fantasy series that has been in print since the 70’s. The rights to this series has changed more hands than Kim Kardashian’s sex tape. Quit fussing about and get it done:  Live action, CGI motion capture or animated, I don’t care. Just do it!

102243#3 – Fafhrd and the Gray Mousrer by Fritz Leiber: This series is right up there with Lord of the Rings as one of the most influential fantasy series that started the entire Dungeons & Dragons genre. Fritz Leiber is even credited by many with coming up with the phrase “sword and sorcery.” Everything you want in a fantasy story is here … Wizards, thieves, warriors and the like fight through an incredible landscapes with plenty of skullduggery. There is rich history woven into the tapestry of the world of Fritz Leiber. It amazes me that this hasn’t made its way to TV or film yet.

673593#2 – Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock: Without a doubt, Elric is one of the greatest anti-heroes ever written. Michael Moorcock has created a world so fantastic, it could only be created through CGI technology of today, like James Cameron waiting until he had the right technology to create Avatar. The warrior/sorcerer renegade searching for his place in a world that hates and fears him. The hard part is trying to translate the Elric series into a trilogy. I would recommend Elric of Melnibone, Weird of the White Wolf and Stormbringer. Elric would bring horror and fantasy fans together to see the world of Michael Moorcock brought to life.

The-Dark-Tower-Novel-Cover#1 – The Dark Tower by Stephen King: I know this is not a true medieval fantasy, but hear me out. This novel has everything and then some and, just like Elfquest, it’s been tied to a big screen adaptation for the past few years but nothing has come to fruition. Even Ron Howard and Russel Crowe have been tied to this at one time or another. Which leads me to ask, why the hell aren’t you making this movie?! The Dark Tower is King’s take on the Arthurian legend, mixing fantasy with sci-fi and a western. I mean gunslingers, swords and sorcery, knights and thieves … what’s not to love about this series. This is one of Stephen King’s most unique stories that he’s ever written.

I know many of you have your own opinions and your own choices for fantasy books needing movie/television adaptation. I, for one, would love to see my own novels, Forever Avalon and The Dark Tides, added to that list someday. I just wish Hollywood would stop trying to redo something that’s already been done and try something new for a change.