Cameron Johnston

This morning I awoke to some good news - my short story The Dying Glass has been shortlisted for the 2017  James White Award . The stories that have made it through to the final selection are: Don – Steve Dubois May the Pain Guide You Home – Daniel Roy The Morrigan – Stewart Horn Skin and Bone – Beth Plutchak The Cut – Elsie WK Donald The Dying Glass – Cameron Johnston My short story has some really good company on that list :) We should find out soon who the winner will be *fingers and toes and eyes all crossed* *falls over*

I am finding myself a little bored of all the CGI special effects in movies at the moment. It feels like they are all too often sacrificing character, plot and dialogue for whizz-bang spectacle. While I enjoyed Wonder Woman I was switching off during the third act with all the lingering on big fancy explosions and magical effects. I would much rather have seen more of that screen time devoted to the Amazons and more of Diana exploring the modern world. It was the same with The Avengers, which I loved, and the countless CGI enemies in Avengers: Age of Ultrabore - I'd much rather have had more character interactions than yet another mashing of an anonymous metal face. Man of Steel was interesting to begin with and then quickly descended into a one long, drawn-out duel with buildings exploding everywhere. Lots of spectacle and some amazingly cool visuals, but at what cost? Practical special effects and clever puppetry have always appealed to me more than CGI, things like Gremlins...