Musings from the basement...

Writer smashes reviewer with a wine bottle, aka How NOT to handle getting a bad review

November 10, 2015 0 Comments

I’ve touched on authors having meltdowns when criticized a few times before (like this guy or this woman’s now deleted Amazon war), but this one takes the cake. A year or so ago, British author self-published a novel inspired by the woman he was stalking. Seriously. He blogged extensively about stalking her, law enforcement got involved, and he eventually wrote a fairy tale in which she was the main character. Given that he blogs extensively about mental illness, I have to guess that he’s a wee bit unstable. Anyway, he posted an excerpt of this work to Wattpad, where an 18-year-old Scottish girl gave it a harsh review. Among other things, she said: This is painful. Everything is written through telling and purple prose which…
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Uncategorized, Writing

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MAD MEN: Seeing the show as a Period Piece

November 10, 2015 0 Comments

The following is taken from Celebrating Mad Men, available in paperback and for Kindle. MAD MEN AS A PERIOD PIECE “I’m interested in how people respond to change. Are they excited by the change, or are they terrified that they’ll lose everything that they know? Do people recognize that change is going on? That’s what the show’s about.” – Matthew Weiner  . One of the great joys of Mad Men comes from being immersed in a time and place that is not our own. We delight not only in the look and feel of the show, but also in the way in which it’s instructive when it comes to how people lived and behaved just a few short decades ago. It not only allows us a glimpse into that world, it also puts…
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Television, Works by Eric

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Breaking Bad’s 10 Greatest Moments

November 5, 2015 0 Comments

The following is taken from Breaking Down Breaking Bad, available in paperback and for Kindle. The idea of selecting the greatest moments of a show filled with memorable moments is, admittedly, like asking to be slapped around for how absent-minded you are. Such a list can only ever spark a flurry of “how could you forget Moment X?” comments from readers. Still, it’s worth revisiting these scenes not only because it’s fun to roll a mental highlight reel, but because many of them distill the essence of Breaking Bad down to a few memorable minutes. Yes, there are some that were painful to leave off the list – Gale’s murder and Hank’s shootout with the Cousins spring immediately to mind – but you have to cut things off somewhere. Taken as a whole,…
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Television, Works by Eric

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Whispers of the Old Hag: why Sleep Paralysis is probably behind some of our creepiest myths

October 31, 2015 6 Comments

This piece originally appeared in the July/August 2008 edition of Weird Tales magazine, issue #350. It once appeared online, but their online archives appear to be gone, so I’m taking it upon myself to post it here for posterity’s sake. Halloween seemed like the perfect day to do it, too. If you’ve ever suffered from sleep paralysis — waking up and being unable to move — you should read this. WHISPERS OF THE OLD HAG by Eric San Juan The thing was made of light and shadow; skeletal, pale, with ribs like talons and deep eager eyes. I did not know the time. Didn’t care to know, really. Midnight; 4 a.m.; whatever. How could I care when it stood there, just outside my bedroom door,…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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Why I think Jurassic World stunk (and you should, too)

October 27, 2015 3 Comments

It was kind of hard to escape Jurassic World this summer. The fourth movie in the Jurassic Park series (though it conveniently ignored the first two sequels), it was a HUGE smash hit, raking in $1.6 billion worldwide and jumping to the #3 spot for all time box office. Even adjusted for inflation, it sits at #23 for all time box office. Not too shabby. What was shabby was this film. And I’m going to tell you why. On paper, I should have fallen head over heels for it. I LOVE dinosaurs. I LOVE dinosaur movies. I LOVE the Jurassic Park series, both books and movies, even the subpar installments like Jurassic Park 3. Big creatures destroying stuff? Loads of spectacle? A non-stop adventure filled…
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Films

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