Author Archive: Eric San Juan

X-Men: First Class, and it is good (not great) but very. Good.

My X marathon begins! And for what it’s worth, I’m starting pretty shallow, with some lightweight comments and such. Totally mailing it in for the first few movies. The reason is because I am. Seriously. Ripping this one out because in truth what people REALLY want is to know why I think you’re dumb for insulting The Last Stand. So to get the obvious stuff out of the way, First Class is close to impeccable. Marred only by writing that is too wink wink nudge nudge, it’s got pretty much everything you want from a good mutant movie. Pathos. Humanity. Thrilling action. Creative use of powers (the most creative of all seven X flicks, actually). A relatively smart plot. An awesome finale. Etc. Plus it…
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Revisiting the X-Men flick: 7-film marathon time!

I grew up a comic book geek (among other things). Growing up a geek has shaped and molded me in ways I’m still discovering today, some of them good, some of them not so much. As an adult, I remain unashamed of my geekdom, and that is likely to be the case until I die of old age at 53. All of this means I’m about to take something silly way too seriously. And I am. You’d better bet your damn life on it. This is a long-winded, pointless, unnecessary way to say that over the next seven days I’m going to watch and review/comment on/post about the X movies. For the uninitiated, that translates to “movies in which Hugh Jackman disrobes and shows off…
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So I have to be an accountant, too?

When you daydream of being a Writer, sitting at home doing Important Work and actually getting paid for it, you most certainly DON’T daydream of filing tax documents, managing bank accounts, chasing people for money, and other such nonsense. Yet you’re sure as hell going to end up doing it, and plenty of it, too. They never tell you this. (Never mind who “they” is.) No one explains that if you plan to make a go of supporting yourself as a freelance writer, your days will be just as filled with “business” stuff as they will with writing. They never tell you that you’ll sometimes have to rattle cages just to get paid for work you did, or that dealing with the tax man will…
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Having an appointment with writing (also, cats at keyboards)

I like deadlines. No, scratch that. I need deadlines. I thrive on them. I require them. Without them, I’m left to rely on discipline and good habits to keep myself focused on doing what I should be doing. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a shortage of both. That’s why, whenever possible, I prefer for my writing projects to have a deadline attached. When it comes to professional work, that’s usually a given. Your client is going to want their content by a certain time, after all. As I write this post, for instance, I’m also tossing around ideas for my Sunday evening appointment with writing. See, for the last two years I have written a weekly beer column for the Philadelphia Weekly….
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Here is the self-indulgent writer’s life post (yay!)

I started this blog however many years ago* for admittedly cynical reasons. I wanted to be more established as a Writer rather than a writer, and by all accounts having a blog through which you connect with people was an absolutely integral part of the equation. Supposedly, blogging is just what writers do. Since that time, I’ve had some books published, five of them by traditional publishers and three via my own sweat and blood. I s’pose that’s not bad. Can’t say this blog has had much to do with any of that or that it has helped in any way, though. I fully acknowledge that I haven’t handled it well or the way you’re supposed to or whatever, but that’s neither here nor there….
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