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Messages - Mark Rainey

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Current Talk '03 II / Re:Voice of Judah vs. Judah Zachary
« on: November 11, 2003, 04:12:34 AM »
Quote
I have viewed that episode several times and have always been under the belief that the masked figure is indeed played by Keene Curtis while the unmasked Judah, aka the Judah in the box, is Michael McGuire. Aside from the fact that their is dual billing for the character in that episode, the other main clue is the shape of the actor's head.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that was Keene Curtis in the mask. It's his voice and there's no indication whatsoever of any dubbing going on. That was back in the days when he was still searching desperately for a tavern to buy and he was in a pretty foul humor.

--Mark[/b][/color]

557
Current Talk '03 II / Re:The New DARK SHADOWS?
« on: November 11, 2003, 12:34:36 AM »
I'd love to be wrong, but I have the feeling this is one of those "Nothing to see here, move along" moments.

--Mark[/b][/color]
[/font]

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Calendar Events / Announcements '03 II / Re:Happy Birthday LAFB
« on: November 10, 2003, 02:36:55 AM »
[shadow=red,left,300]HAPPY HAPPY HAPPYBIRTHDAY[/shadow]
LAFB!

--Mark

559
Calendar Events / Announcements '03 II / Re:The Night of the Sun and the Moon
« on: November 09, 2003, 08:18:09 PM »
We got a good view of it last night. Went out for Japanese with the family, and after dinner, quite a few folks from the restaurant hung out in the parking lot to moongaze. It was kind of a neat moment, with lots of folks hanging out and chatting.

I did hear a bunch of wolf howls, but I think at least some of them came from my wife.

--Mark[/font]

560
Calendar Events / Announcements '03 II / OT: New Book Deal
« on: November 08, 2003, 06:20:15 PM »

Perhaps this will be of interest to some of you here: Delirium Books will be putting out a collection of stories from my old magazine, DEATHREALM, probably early next year, as a signed and limited edition hardcover. It will be called DEATHREALMS: Selections From the Land Where Horror Dwells. I've finished editing it and have turned it in to the publisher as of last night.

Stories include the following:

"Now You Know" by Donald Burleson
"Celeste, of the Chosen," by Douglas Clegg
"Embarrassment and Revenge" by Rick Kleffel
"Bloodbone" by D. F. Lewis
"Smoothpicks" by Elizabeth Massie
"Don't Clean the Aquarium" by Jeff Osier
"Bite of Conscience" by Hank Parnell
"Cool Mist" by Wilum Pugmire
"Blind and Blue" by Wayne Allen Sallee
"Numhed" by James Robert Smith
"Foreign Bodies" by Jeffrey Thomas
"Photos of a Leg" by Scott Thomas
"A Pinch of Snuff" by William R. Trotter
"Welcome to the Masque" by Jeff VanderMeer
"From My Reflection, Darkly" by David Niall Wilson
"On the Side of the Road" by Ken Wisman

Future volumes may follow, at the discretion of the publisher. I've been pitching this book for ages, both independently and through my agent. At long last, it looks like it's actually going to happen. DEATHREALM had a ten-year run, won numerous awards, and featured fiction by some of the most influential writers in the business. I'm hoping for more of these books to happen--and they may--both to showcase some of the best work from existing issues and possibly even run new short fiction.

The only downside is that Delirium Books caters largely to collectors, so the volumes, while beautifully packaged, are not the least bit inexpensive. However, if you're interested in checking them out, the Web site is www.deliriumbooks.com.

--Mark[/b][/font]

561
Testing. 1, 2, 3... / Re:Under Attack!
« on: November 08, 2003, 05:17:52 PM »
Quote
Not only that Josette; alot of FW & AV prohibit places (such as 'here').

Mark...more info on the sweeper please (by chance, is there a free version)?

The Cleaner is available from www.moosoft.com, and can be used free for 30 days. Even after it expires, its task list (called TCActive) continues to work; although it doesn't actually scan for trojans after it expires, it still shows you the programs that are running on your computer, which is quite invaluable (since the Windows task list is a joke). And TCMonitor will continue to set off an alarm if your registry is modified. The registered version is $29.99, I believe.

I use McAfee AV, Sygate Firewall, and The Cleaner (registered), and I have never experienced any problem with normal Web activity, such as coming here.

Hope that helps.

--Mark[/b][/color]
[/font]

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Testing. 1, 2, 3... / Re:Under Attack!
« on: November 07, 2003, 05:27:51 AM »
The firewall may clue you in to a trojan -- if an unfamiliar program asks to access the internet, for example. Sometimes a trojan will spoof a trusted program name, but a good firewall will know the difference. At the very least, you'd get suspicious if a trusted program suddenly needs new internet access (unless the program has been legitimately modified).

I have The Cleaner, which is a pretty good trojan detector/eliminator. It has a menu that shows all applications running on your computer, and it's far more comprehensive than the Windows program list. It scans everything that's running for trojan activity, and it has an alarm feature to alert you any time the registry gets changed -- which a trojan will usually do so that it will start running when you boot your computer.

--Mark[/b][/color][/font]

563
Calendar Events / Announcements '03 II / Re:Barnabas Collins Halloween costume
« on: November 07, 2003, 12:26:04 AM »
That was not funny, not funny at all.


<snort>



Okay, it was funny. Really,really funny!

;D

--Mark

564
Current Talk '03 II / Re:How Did Angelique Get Her Powers?
« on: November 06, 2003, 06:27:40 PM »
The last I heard -- and this was a long while back -- that Tor Books would be putting it out as a trade paperback. Beyond that, though, they don't plan any further DS books; or if they do, they want to have them written only by the stars of the show. While I think Lara has a good thing going, as a writer, I can't say I'm thrilled by the prospect of being pushed out of the roster by someone who has no prior track record -as- a writer.

However, the Tor deal may or may not still be in the bargain. Things may have changed in recent months.

--Mark

565
Current Talk '03 II / Re:WITHOUT DARKSHADOWS
« on: November 06, 2003, 05:51:39 AM »
Thanks for such a detailed review, Wes.

Your points are very well taken, and I quite understand certain aspects you might wish to see done differently. That's inevitable in something like this, and I'll be the first to acknowledge that it helps to have a professional editor give a book a good going-over. It's very difficult for a writer to edit his own work, and that extra set of eyes will always find things the writer didn't. Some of the points you make are definitely those that an editor would catch. Of course, LABYRINTH is a first draft and an only draft, since I probably won't be going back to work on it; I'm sure if I did, any number of improvements could be made.

Above and beyond pitching this to HarperCollins back when it looked like the series would continue, I completed LABYRINTH for two reasons. First and foremost, for personal enjoyment; the ideas I'd had for the original proposal bit me like a case of lockjaw, and I couldn't just pry them loose. Basically, they demanded I do something with them. Secondly, once I made up my mind to do this thing without the usual paycheck to accompany it, I figured I could at least expose it to this select group of DS fans, for better or for worse. You, as a group, have been terribly kind in your support of DREAMS and my other books and stories; some of you have even plunked down yer hard-earned cash to buy stuff with my name on it, and I felt maybe it was time to offer a freebie before somebody got wise and started clamoring to get their money back. ;)

Seriously... being a writer with a certain mercenary mindset, I like to get something for what I do, and in this case, the feedback I've gotten, both positive and negative, has made the project worthwhile. I can look back and say that, even though I didn't get paid for LABYRINTH, it was a profitable endeavor. Although this particular book is DARK SHADOWS, I can apply readers' observations about it -- and my writing as a whole -- to other projects and hopefully better myself as a writer. Because of the vast, varying amounts of criticism, both good and bad, about DREAMS OF THE DARK, LABYRINTH is a far better work than if I were simply writing in a vacuum, without the kind of interactivity with other DS fans I'm lucky enough to experience here. Although it don't buy groceries, it's worth an awful lot to me personally, and I appreciate it. ;)

--Mark[/b][/color]

[/font]

566
Current Talk '03 II / Re:WITHOUT DARKSHADOWS
« on: November 06, 2003, 12:43:55 AM »
Quote from: wes on November 05, 2003, 11:37:39 PM
I didn't expect anyone to look into it!  It wasn't as long as the limit you mentioned, that's for sure... I think I started out with 20 smileys; but, I didn't use them all.  When I first posted, the little blue bar started to load, then the screen telling me to reload came up.  I tried to go back to save what's I'd written, but kept getting the reload screen.  I hoped the post did go thru.  I checked back & it did not.  I worked pretty hard on that, so it was a bummer.  I'm over it now... Thank You for lookin into it! --wes

Wes -- I hope you'll be able to manage a recap. I was looking forward to it. ;)

Thanks for the effort!

--Mark

567
Current Talk '03 II / Re:WITHOUT DARKSHADOWS
« on: November 04, 2003, 04:39:11 AM »
Try downloading Chapter 18 again. This problem has cropped up before, which I don't quite understand, since I've made sure all the uploaded files were complete. Anyway, I've replaced the file. See if it works OK.

--Mark[/color]

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Calendar Events / Announcements '03 II / Marilyn Ross DARK SHADOWS Books
« on: November 04, 2003, 01:36:38 AM »
I'm putting up a couple of duplicate Marilyn Ross DS novels I have on Ebay, if anyone's looking for them. Real cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3563594943&category=29237&rd=1

--Mark

569
Current Talk '03 II / Re:WITHOUT DARKSHADOWS
« on: November 03, 2003, 12:41:13 AM »
For those who haven't read it, or just need to get a fix, my Dark Shadows novel, The Labyrinth of Souls--which almost certainly would have been an upcoming HarperCollins DS book had HarperCollins seen fit to do the right thing and not cancel the line <wry G>--is available to read at http://public.webbox.com/628627. These are the original MS Word files and must be downloaded to read; the Webbox index does not list them in order, so the chapters are jumbled, but I'm sure y'all can figure them out; labyrinth01.doc is Chapter 1, labyrinth02.doc is Chapter 2, etc., etc., and so forth. My personal feeling is that it's better than Dreams of the Dark, and I sure wish it would have had the opportunity to see the light of day as an officially sanctioned novel.

--Mark[/b][/color]

570
Current Talk '03 II / Re:How Did Angelique Get Her Powers?
« on: November 01, 2003, 11:30:47 PM »
Quote
Mark, Anne Rice is gona be at Vroman's 11-7... I wish you would write DS books at the rate she writes those Vampire Chronicles!

If the series were being continued as originally planned, I'd be writing more of them than people would ever want to read. ;)

--Mark

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