Before I actually took the plunge and wrote a novel, I had assumed rather naively that fiction didn’t require a lot of intensive research. And sure, compared to the nonfiction books I’ve written, Spacebuckler doesn’t exactly require footnotes or citations. That said, I found myself researching all kinds of crazy stuff for the book. Such as…. Continue reading
Category Archives: Weirdness
Ride forth, Napoleon!
"Able was I, ere I saw Elba...able to ride right around it!."
Just a short update, which is fitting given the subject at right. (Actually, Napoleon Bonaparte was of average height for the time; the British papers portrayed him as diminutive.)
Anyway. I’ve been wanting this particular t-shirt for quite some time, and lo, I finally ordered it. Should all go well, I plan to wear it for the debut of my second book. Ambitious, I know, because the first hasn’t even been submitted to publishers yet. (But soon! And then I’ll be a wreck while I await word on it.) But the second book — currently being pounded out in very rough, first-draft form — might have something to do with Old Boney.
The book won’t have him on a bicycle, of course.
Down with TV-based hipster references!
Yes, there’s a lot to be angry about. We’re at war in a number of places, democracy and human rights are ascendant in some places, embattled elsewhere. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Rise up, people! Rise up and….
….speak out against the over-use of Family Guy references?
I’m amused to no end by this. Too long has society suffered under the yoke of Family Guy’s sharp, pointed societal observations, cloaked in prepubescent humor. Enough is enough!
Except for the Star Wars spoofs. Those were awesome.
The Betelgeuse brouhaha
She's gonna blow! Eventually.
Is the star Betelgeuse about to go supernova? Will Earth get a “second sun” for a few weeks? Will night turn into day? And did the Mayans (or Incans, Nostradamus, Egyptians, crystal-clutching New Agers) predict it all, just in time for the 2012 faux-pocalypse? Continue reading
Birds falling from the sky? Cue the R.E.M. song!
Mapping the mysterious animal die-offs
It all seems rather biblical, doesn’t it? You’ve got birds falling from the sky in Arkansas and Louisiana — and even Sweden — and millions of dead fish rolling up on shore everywhere from Maryland to Thailand. There’s even been an incident of mass bat deaths in New Mexico. Continue reading
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Michael J. Martinez 