Daily Archives: November 17, 2016

Nov 17 2016
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Self Publishing

BQB Update on Design Contest

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Hey 3.5.

BQB here.

VGRF waved some smelling salts under my nose and I’m up and about again.

Still a little sad I had to open my wallet. I really do hate doing that. She wasn’t lying about ordering off the dollar menu and the grease traps and so on.

It’s only been a couple hours and someone has already submitted a pretty cool design. I mean, I want to wait until the end of the contest to see what the other designers have to offer but I’m just impressed with the power of the Internet.

Do you millennials have any idea how good you all frigging have it when it comes to becoming creative these days?

Damn it, when I was your age, I had to walk up a hill both ways in blizzard conditions just to get to a computer and when I did I still didn’t have a book cover because no one was selling book cover design services over the damn Internet.

Shit. The Internet back then made your computer make a noise like a screeching cat and you could only be on it for five minutes lest you tie up the phone line.

I look forward to sharing the results of all the designers when they come in and together we will make a good choice, 3.5 readers.

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Nov 17 2016
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Writing Prompts

BQB’s Book Cover Design Contest

By: Special Guest Blogger Video Game Rack Fighter

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Hey 3.5 readers.

BQB is passed the hell out on the floor for the moment, so I’ll fill you in.

As you are all aware, our favorite resident yeti fighter does not like to part with money.

But he finally did it. He put up some dough to get a 99Designs contest going.

That’s right. He’s going to publish a book of writing prompts.

In fact, before his face hit the floor, he told me that the title will be, “Bookshelf Q. Battler’s Big Book of Badass Writing Prompts: 101 Scintillating Scenarios to Stimulate Your Cranial Excretions.”

Sigh. Don’t tell him I said this but the only thing it will stimulate is a one-way ticket to Amazon’s virtual 99 cent bin.

Did I say that? No. I’m the ever supportive VGRF and what I meant to say was that this will probably be the boot in the ass he needs to get him going.

Once he sets up an author profile and has something to offer as an author, we can only hope that he will continue to work to get an actual novel out there so the Mighty Potentate won’t vaporize us all into the stone age.

No pressure, BQB.

At any rate, 3.5 readers, I figure the guy must love you all, because he actually opened up his wallet.

HE NEVER OPENS HIS WALLET.

No joke, whenever we go out on a date he’ll take me to Mighty Burger and offer to degrease the grease traps just to avoid paying for my choice off the dollar menu.

So in other words, he really loves you guys since he was so willing to part with money, an act which has made him pass out.

I can only hope he will wake up soon so the yeti will stop resting his hairy feet on him as if he were some kind of nerd shaped Ottoman.

I suppose I could stop that furry freak but unlike BQB, I am not a champion yeti fighter.

Results are expected in a week and if BQB doesn’t like any of the designs he can say no thanks.

But be ready to help him choose one.

Take care, 3.5

P.S. in the meantime, take a look at his writing prompts and tell him what you think.

 

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Nov 17 2016
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Movies

Movie Trailer – John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Hey 3.5 readers.

2014’s John Wick was such a special, under the radar surprise.  It didn’t get half the play it deserved and really grew just by word of mouth.

I was blown away when I saw it.

How to even explain it?

Very quickly, you, the viewer, are presented with a world where there’s a lot going on, but there isn’t much to bog you down in the way of detailed nuance.

Wick is a legendary hitman who goes into retirement to make his wife happy, only to come out of retirement when a puppy gifted to him by his deceased wife is killed by an epic douche.

Yeah, I know, it sounds like an unlikely plot but it works.

And there are rules. Hitmen use special coins as currency and they can stay at a special hotel where they’re supposed to be safe for the duration of their stay.  And for a certain amount of coins, hitmen can make their victims’ bodies disappear no questions asked.

In other words, there’s a lot of rules but you learn them quickly and easily.

Plus, it was great to see Keanu Reeves in a big lead role again.

Shit, that man is well-preserved.

Anyway, John Wick has been given a second chapter.  My only hope is that this franchise doesn’t get too big for its britches. Sometimes when a movie is an understated success there is a desire to go bigger in the sequel and that doesn’t always necessarily work out.

It was the quick, snappy, clear and concise writing that made the first Wick movie a success, so I hope there’s more of it this go around.

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