Tag Archives: Eric Nolan

I’m thinking of renaming this website …

“Smoke a Little Poetry and Get Haiku.”

Whaddya think, Sirs?

Weird world — I was at “The Following’s” latest filming location.

Have any of you guys seen last week’s episode of “The Following?”  Maybe not, because I suspect I am the only one watching this cool show.  (I’ve read that it is “on the bubble,” and Cracked.com has practically campaigned for its cancellation.)

Anyway, if you’ve seen it, Ryan Hardy and co. track a serial killer to a palatial “home” in “Purchase, NY.”

I was there.  I worked there for a night.  That “home” is actually a period mansion that is rented out for high-brow catered events.  (I’ve forgotten its name.)  It’s in Nassau County, not Purchase.  When I was working for a hospital in NY as a grant writer in my 20’s, office staff also doubled as volunteers for fundraising events; we held a big one right there.  Ryan Hardy goes stalking through the same cobblestone driveway where I took my cigarette breaks.  Six degrees of Kevin Bacon indeed.

It was a fun night.  There was a special room that was restricted — VIP access only, I guess.  Only donors and board members were supposed be in the semi-private parlor.  I wandered in quite accidentally, and people just reacted as though I were an (extremely young) donor.  So I just pulled a Frank Abagnale, Jr. and ran with it.  Someone handed me a brandy and a nice cigar, and I just reclined on an immensely comfortable brown leather chair.  (When in Rome.)  It was weird seeing other employees and administrators being gently kept behind the velvet ropes.  I kept smiling and raising a glass to them as they passed.  One vice president was visibly confused at my inclusion there.

So the moral of the story is that if you adopt false pretenses, you get a fancy cigar.  Or something.  I dunno.

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Publication Notice: “The Minotaur” to appear in Aphelion Magazine.

I got some very nice news today — Iain Muir at Aphelion Magazine told me that the online publication would feature “The Minotaur” in its April issue.  I wrote this poem as a tribute to W. H. Auden.

Aphelion is a terrific webzine of science fiction and fantasy, with features, stories and poetry.  It’s pure fun, and it’s 100 percent free.  Check it out here:

http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/index.html

When my poem appears in April, I’ll post a link.

Thanks, Aphelion!

I have a friend who really likes black cats …

… and whenever she talks about it, it reminds me of my own black cat of many years ago in New York.  His name was Jefferson.  Named for Thomas, not George.

Another friend tells me he was a “Russian Blue.”  (Because Russians are colorblind.)

You can tell these are old photos because the note on the door reminds you, “Lost!  Tonight!”  (There is also a campaign sign for my nearly successful Supreme Court run in the early 2000’s.)

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My review of “Captain America: Winter Soldier” (2014)

[THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FILM.]  Okay, now — this was actually a pretty good movie; I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

And that says a lot coming from me — I gave only a lukewarm response to “Captain America: The First Avenger,” because I thought that film was an overly safe family film that had no depth or suspense, and some awkward fight scenes.  I’ve also opined that Captain America is one of the flatter characters on The Avengers’ lineup.  And he’s got a simplistic character concept, even by comic book standards (super-soldier serum, anyone?).

But “Winter Soldier” does improve greatly on some various weaknesses of the origin story.  The action scenes (my favorite is the highway fight) are very, very good, with well choreographed brawls and suspenseful shootouts that aren’t too hard for the viewer to follow.  And the space opera-level climax will definitely give action junkies their money’s worth.

Chris Evans actually is a really good actor, in my estimation.  He seems to do a far better job here than in the other Marvel films, and the script gives Cap a depth that lets Evans show a nice range.  (And dammit if he doesn’t look the part.)  He’s a charismatic lead that lets you more easily buy into the character.  And … Robert Redford in a comic book movie?!  That’s something I never saw coming.  But what a great actor.

My quibbles?  There were a couple.  (BEWARE – SPOILERS AHEAD.)

1)  Cap meets his best friend and (literal) wingman, the superhero Falcon, on a chance encounter after a run around Washington’s Mall?  DEUS EX EXERCISE.

2)  Winter Soldier is nice and intimidating with his bandit-like costume and metal (vibranium?) arm, and it’s a little unnerving when Captain America’s ostensible equal comes crashing into the scene.  But when his mask comes off and he utters one of his few lines of dialogue, he looks and sounds like a slightly dull, soft spoken, 16-year-old boy.  He’s utterly nonthreatening.

3)  I’ve always been hard to please when it comes to conspiracy storylines.  The larger the conspiracy, the less plausible — I refuse to believe that huge numbers of people can keep a secret so big.  S.H.I.E.L.D. is an utterly incompetent spy agency if it allowed Hydra to flourish as it did within its upper echelons.  Besides, Hydra is made up of weirdo fanatics — nuts like that would have a hard time blending in to a mainstream community.

4)  S.H.I.E.L.D. was more fun when it was made up only of good guys.  I never watched the TV show, but I rooted for them in the films.  It was America’s everyman response to a world of super-beings, and it was sort of the committed underdog.

5)  Again, we are never quite sure what Cap’s powers are.  He can withstand 15-story falls with no major injury, but apparently isn’t bulletproof.

6)  Why on Earth does nobody call  The Avengers for help?

But don’t let those minor irks prevent you from checking out this movie.  It’s pretty decent.

Comic Book Nerd Trivia — Winter Soldier looks a heck of a lot like an anti-hero named “Nomad” in the mid-1990’s.  He teamed up with Daredevil when he went to Las Vegas in the “Dead Man’s Hand” storyline.  It’s probably the same character; I am just too lazy to look it up right now.

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I taught Benedict Cumberbatch everything he knows.

Well … maybe not, as I am not even certain he’d been born yet when I was in college.  But I did a fine job of channeling Christopher Plummer.  I was into Sherlock Holmes about 20 years before it was cool.

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I believe all that coolness rubbed off from a double-dose of Nate.  Pictured here are Nate “The Amazing Nate” Leslie and Nate “The Great Nate” Wade.  Nate L. is now a critically acclaimed author and a professor at Northern Virginia Community College.  Nate W. is now a public defender in Pima County, Arizona.

In place of hair, I wore a Tribble from the original “Star Trek” series, as was popular at the time.

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No one can forget the time when Carroll O’Connor (aka Archie Bunker) stopped by to prepare barbecue for us …

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Finally, no Mary Washington College post would be complete without a shot of the legendary Len Ornstein (far left).

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Or the mythic James A. Cordone.

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Zombies, time travel, small towns and scary sewers — check in with me at The WIP Blog Tour!

Hello, all!

I’m honored to be able to report tonight that I’ve been accorded a rather nice honor by my fellow novelist and poet, A.K. Hinchey – nomination for The WIP (Work In Progress) Blog Tour. Ms. Hinchey is a lovely voice and a friend from across the pond, hailing from Lancaster, Britain, where she is a prolific young writer and also the busy mother of a new baby girl. Her publications include short fiction in Dagda Publishing’s “All Hail The New Flesh,” as well as Dagda’s 2013 poetry collection, “Threads.” She has completed her first novel, “Incarnate,” and is hard at work on its sequel, “Bound.” She is also a terrific supporter of the independent publishing community, with in-depth reviews that introduce readers to new voices. To get a little better acquainted, check out Ms. Hinchey’s writing blog, “The Torn Page,” right here:

https://akhinchey.wordpress.com/

The WIP Blog Tour lets readers and writers catch up with one another. When nominated, indie authors can update the community about what they are working on, and share excerpts to whet their appetites. Authors are then asked to nominate a few of their peers. Read about it here:

WIP Blog Tour – Bound, Incarnate, Teasers and More

I’m happy to say that I am still hard at work on my prose. While Dagda Publishing and Dead Snakes have been kind enough to share more of my poetry, my major works in progress include two books. The first, of course, is the sequel to my post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, “The Dogs Don’t Bark In Brooklyn Any More,” published by Dagda. While “Dogs” was primarily a character study of Rebecca O’Conner and her role in the global war between humanity and super-intelligent wolves, I hope that this new book will change the series’ pace and tone, with more action and horror to turn this into a frightening war epic.

Another project that I am quite excited about is a collection of short fiction. I began this project after being encouraged by colleagues in the community, and let me tell you, it’s great fun. “Dogs” and its sequel gave me an opportunity to take a single fictional universe and explore it in depth. But working on short stories gives me plenty of new sandboxes in which to play.

What’s ahead? Well, some of the stories will be traditional horror tales, while others will be darker mainstream fiction. We’ll take a look at what happens when time travel goes disastrously wrong, and consigns one woman to a truly unique hell. We’ll join a pedophile and child pornographer on his thirsty hunt through New York’s Penn Station – then watch as his plans go delightfully, horribly awry. We’ll tremble alongside two members of the New York City Department of Pest Management, as they discover unexpected threats in the labyrinthine subways. We’ll visit an ostensibly idyllic Virginia town, where a supernatural danger segues sadly into a horror that is all too common in the real world. And, for good, old-fashioned, gorehound fun, we’ll take a detailed, blow-by-blow look at what happens when spirited average Joes defend a supermarket full of customers from a ravenous zombie swarm.

And more. If you’ve enjoyed my writing before or want to take your first journey with me, rest assured, I do hope to please you.

Well, The WIP Blog Tour invites participants to share three lines of their work in progress. I thought I’d share the first three lines from the above-mentioned time travel story. Its title is “Today, Tomorrow, the Next Day and Forever” (c) 2015 Eric Robert Nolan.

(And, what the heck, I’ll make it four lines.)

I am going insane. I have watched my husband burn to death at least 500 times.

It always begins the same. It begins with beauty.

(c)  2015 Eric Robert Nolan

I’d like to thank AK Hinchey for nominating me for The WIP Blog Tour! I’m always grateful for her attention, and this was a lot of fun! In the meantime, be sure to check in here for my own nominations for the tour. 🙂

A veritable flood of ideas for short stories —

— characters, motivations, voices, plot connections.  Their lives touch or intersect when an overarching mystery threatens them all.  I can hardly write fast enough to get it all down.

And yet … I can’t manage a single word of poetry.  Assonance, aliteration, metaphor … I reach and it’s just not there, which has never really happened before.

The human brain is a strange thing.

Anyway, alums … with the above, I am starting what I hope will be a set of five closely connected short stories — Mary Washington College will be in the backstories of many characters (i.e., college students on holiday break).

What on earth was my COSTUME supposed to be?!

Burn victim?  Zombie?  Guy at the zoo at whom the monkeys accurately threw their feces?!

Anyway, this is me, circa … 1989 or so, at a Halloween party at Carrie Schor’s house (then Carrie Harbach) in Lake Panamoka, New York.  Carrie always did throw the funnest parties at her house.

I lament this picture a bit because, as a child, I had a veritable FLAIR for Halloween costumes — you should have seen my incredible homemade Ghostbusters costume in 1985.  It was the toast of Lake Panamoka.

But the makeup job depicted above just speaks of minimal effort.

The young lady pictured is Julianne Whitehead, another Longwood High School Alum, a great old friend, and one of the coolest girls I have ever been privileged to know.

Thanks for the photo, Carrie!!

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A quick review of “Family Guy: It’s A Trap!”

I’m blogging some of my earlier reviews from Facebook:

*****

“Family Guy: It’s a Trap” (2010) is funny as hell and lampoons “Return of the Jedi” (1983) perfectly; I’d give it a 9 out of 10.  This is right up there with a decent episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in terms of how much it made me laugh.  As with the other “Family Guy” satires of “Star Wars,” I was also impressed with how it used conventional animation and CGI to seemingly reproduce scenes shot for shot.

The only thing the detracted from this was the consistent potty humor (not really my thing) and one apparent joke that is too tasteless even to describe.

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