November 27, 2012

Yesterday was Cyber Monday. Today is COLD CITY Tuesday.

COLD CITY kicks off The Early Years Trilogy which begins in 1990 and recounts how Jack arrived in New York City as a callow twenty-one-year old and made the city his home.

NYC was a different place then. The Disneyfication of Times Square was still years away. A national recession was on, the crime rate was high, and 42[SUP]nd[/SUP] Street was still Grindhouse Row.

Jack was different too. He didn’t know the ropes yet - hell, he didn’t even know where to find the ropes. But he’s a quick learner, adaptable, and choosy about who he’ll call a friend. In other words, a natural-born survivor.

Want to know how he got so tight with Abe, how he met Julio? COLD CITY is the place. Meet the new Jack, not the same as the old Jack - but all the ingredients are there to brew up the guy people will come to know as the Repairman.

A great place for a new reader to start the Repairman Jack series, because here's where it =really= begins. So if you need holiday gifts for RJ fans or RJ virgins, or any thriller readers or crime fiction fans, COLD CITY fills the bill.

If you haven't pre-ordered it, but plan to buy a copy, please do so this week.

Swell fella that I am, I've gathered multiple ways to make COLD CITY yours:
HARDCOVER -
***Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/935ctjo
***B&N: http://tinyurl.com/codswu2
***Books-A-Million: http://tinyurl.com/d3fcdh4
***Local Independent: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780765330147
EBOOK -
***Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/8we8rjp
***Nook: http://tinyurl.com/8zh5kw9
AUDIOBOOK: http://tinyurl.com/8jkot45

Check out the discounts being offered above. Your holiday shopping is DONE.

These websites are each offering a free copy of COLD CITY:

http://melissawatercolor.blogspot.com/20...novel.html

http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.c...ilson.html

http://starmetaloakreviews.com/2012/11/r...ul-wilson/

http://beforeitsnews.com/books/2012/11/g...49262.html

http://www.layersofthought.net/ (scroll down a bit)

http://puretextuality.com/2012/11/25/blo...#more-6618

http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/11/rel...ilson.html

More to follow...

...runs through these seven blogs, starting with:

1) http://www.literallyjen.com/2012/11/blog...rman-jack/

2) [URL="http://fadeintofantasy.com/cold-city-by-f-paul-wilson-character-interview-repairman-jack/"]http://fadeintofantasy.com/cold-city-by-f-paul-wilson-character-interview-repairman-jack/

[/URL]3) http://www.horrordrive-in.com/serendipit...3-Homepage

4) http://www.horrortalk.com/features/2894-...-jack.html

5) http://www.mindofthegeek.com/2012/11/29/...ck-part-5/[SIZE=3]

6) http://openbooksociety.com/article/the-r...blog-tour/

7) http://www.curlingupbythefire.blogspot.com/


[/SIZE]

Has anyone else seen this? If you haven't, clear out about 4 hours and watch all 10 episodes on Hulu.

It's like Needful Things. People go to see a man in a diner who can get them anything they want. All he asks in return is for them to perform one task. Every scene takes place in the diner. The episodes are carried by the writing and performances.

http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=2987

Really cool. two of my favorite authors chatting.

It is really hard to think of an actor who is funny, kind, badass, not overly buff like Arnold or Sly Stallone, and gets serious when angry. Any ideas?

I just finished reading the entire series. My personal favorites are The Tomb for its suspense, history about the main villain and his sister, army of Rakosh, and most importantly, introducing the one and only Jack, and Nightworld, for giving us readers the climax we were all waiting for and having characters from the adversary novels play important roles. What is your favorite RJ story?

1990 was a banner year for grindhouse films -- dozens of them, big budget and low budget. Jack didn't know many people in NYC back then, so I bet he'd go see all of these. Here are trailers for the first few:

COLD CITY films no. 1 – Jack was disappointed that this one didn't live up to the original: http://tinyurl.com/bazfeer

COLD CITY films no. 2 – No way he'd miss this: http://tinyurl.com/ctjjxdh

COLD CITY films no. 3 – Jack digs Dolph flicks. Great tag line on this one (almost seems like the script was written for that one line at the end): http://tinyurl.com/b6cudqb

COLD CITY films #4 – Young Jack would have seen this for Harley Jane Kozak as well as the spiders: [URL="http://tinyurl.com/b6o95pt"]http://tinyurl.com/b6o95pt

[/URL]COLD CITY films[B] #5 – you gotta believe Jack would like Steven Seagal flicks back in 1990: http://tinyurl.com/aubj4fk[URL="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23COLDCITYfilms&src=hash"]

[B]COLD CITY films[/URL][B] #6 – some said the only thing better than a Steven Seagal film in 1990 was ANOTHER Seagal film: [URL="http://t.co/oJRQvVNP"]http://tinyurl.com/as52hb4

[/URL][/B][/B][/B][B][B]COLD CITY films[B] #[/B][/B][/B]7 – After a Seagal double feature, Jack would have seen this even if David J. Schow hadn’t written it. http://tinyurl.com/9wzgxke

[B][B]COLD CITY films[B] #[/B][/B][/B]8 – you know Jack would be a Coens fan after “Blood Simple.” They topped that with this: http://tinyurl.com/bxvg775

[B][B]COLD CITY films[B] #[/B][/B][/B]9 – you KNOW Jack would dig this one back in the day http://tinyurl.com/agngaek

[B][B]COLD CITY films[B] #[/B][/B][/B]10 – in 1990 there’s no way Jack would have missed this one - [URL="http://tinyurl.com/cua4z4v"]http://tinyurl.com/cua4z4v

[/URL]COLD CITY films no. 11 – this one has been imitated to death since 1990, but back in the day Jack would have loved ithttp://tinyurl.com/apgajja

COLD CITY films no. 12 – not as good as the original but Jack would have checked it out in 1990 http://tinyurl.com/ak3hjjl

COLD CITY films no. 13 – back in 1990 Jack wondered how a film with such high-powered talent could turn out so… lame http://tinyurl.com/csy7b2g

COLD CITY films no. ZERO – as much as he liked “Roadhouse,” Jack skipped the #1 grossing film of 1990 http://tinyurl.com/bfaaspa

COLD CITY films no. 14 – Jack loved the first, hated the second, and liked 1990s part three [URL="http://tinyurl.com/bw5acw7"]http://tinyurl.com/bw5acw7

[/URL]COLD CITY films no. 15 – if Jack had any self-awareness in 1990, he would not have missed this http://tinyurl.com/cqpg62m

COLD CITY films no. 16 – “Consider that a divorce” was the best line from 1990’s #5 top grosser: http://tinyurl.com/bcng92k

COLD CITY films no. 17 – the first of a weekend double feature of 1990 sequels, neither as good as the original: http://tinyurl.com/crvhbwr

My vote was stolen yesterday. In politicospeak, I was disenfranchised by the Electoral College. (Please don’t lump this harangue in with Trump’s hissy fit – totally different.)

I revere our Constitution. I believe the Founding Fathers crafted a unique and robust foundation for a republic. And if we’d stuck to the limitations it placed on the power of the federal government, we wouldn’t be in this economic bind (but that’s another conversation).

Despite my abiding respect, I believe it’s time for the Electoral College to go. It served a purpose in the early days of the union when travel and communications were difficult, and especially when the inhabitants of the newborn United States of America thought of themselves as Georgians or New Yorkers or Virginians first, and citizens of the Union second. But now, after numerous Supreme Court decisions forcing the states to kow-tow to the voracious and insatiable federal amoeba, the concept of free and independent statehood is vestigial at best.

Rendering the Electoral College obsolete.

This was hammered home to me yesterday when I voted for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. Did I think he would win? Of course not. But I am truly sick of the Republicratic system where I must repeatedly choose the lesser of two evils. Sure, they talk different talk, but once elected, they walk the same walk: more power to the state, less for the individual. I refuse to play their game.

But although I cast my vote for Gary Johnson, it went to Barack Obama. All of New Jersey’s individual votes, whether for Obama or Romney or Johnson or any other candidate, were lumped into 14 Electoral votes, all of which went into the Obama column. And electoral votes decide the winner. (Had I been voting in Texas, my Gary Johnson vote would have wound up in Romney’s pocket – same problem.)

The upshot: My vote didn’t count.

It didn’t get to Gary Johnson as I intended. Yes, it will wind up in a popular vote tally somewhere, but so what? My vote was rendered meaningless by the Electoral College system.

I can’t say this often enough, because this is personal and it infuriates me: I did not vote for Obama, yet that’s where my vote went. I might as well have left the PRESIDENT line on the ballot blank. I do not want to be part of a collective. One person, one vote – remember? I was not heard yesterday.

You can say, Well, Obama won the popular vote as well. So what? I don’t care. That’s not the point. You’re not listening: The popular vote is meaningless as long as the Electoral College calls the shots.

We have the technology for a popular vote. Next election, let the states submit the unique votes of the individuals who voted – not the collective – directly to the candidates. This might well result in people taking a closer look at alternatives to the Republicrats.

You may not want to be heard. I do.

A large swarm of chew wasps or a single rakosh.

You can select one weapon from the rpj arsenal. You have no one else to worry about, just yourself. You are in a massive warehouse, only one way out, through your chosen foe. Which one do you take? Why?

Personally, I'm going with the rakosh. For whatever reason, the swarm of chew wasps seems more alien to me. The idea of glass-like teeth, and a lot of the little bastards, screams bring on the rakosh.