Musings

Roger Hyttinen | Author

YA Paranormal Author

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Where are the Book Reviews?

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image of a boy reading a bookFor those of you who’ve been following me for awhile, you’ll know that I had posted quite a few book reviews to this blog. A lot actually. Several a week.

The thing of it is, is that I didn’t intended this to be a book review blog…it just kind of happened.

My original intention with my rogerhyttien.com blog was to be a place where I talk about my work and talk about me a bit, offering you the chance to get to know me better. But then I started writing reviews (I couldn’t help myself…I love books!).

I also have a BookTube channel called Roger’s Reads in where I talk about books. So I asked myself,

“Hey Roger! Why don’t so start a separate book reivew blog and call it Roger’s Reads?”

So I said, “Hey Roger, that’s a great idea.”

So Roger’s Reads – the blog was born. I moved all the book reviews that were here over to there and from this point forward, will only post my reviews there. If you click on the Book Reviews link on top of this page, it will take you right over there. Or you can go to https://rogersreads.com.

So this blog is going to mainly be about my work, my life and things I like (and dislike).  I hope you’ll stick around.

But if you’re just here for the reviews, then rogersreads.com is the place to be.

Altered Carbon Netflix series – off to a great start

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Altered carbon

I just started watching a new series on Netflix called Altered Carbon. This is an adaptation of a cyberpunk science fiction novel written in 2002 by Richard K. Morgan. I read the novel about 15 years ago, and it was one of those stories that stuck in my head. I was super-pumped when I heard that the book was finally going to be made into a series. It’s a Netflix original, so that’s the only way to watch it at the moment.

I’ve watched only the first three episodes and thus far, I love it! The story takes place in a future world where human personalities can be stored digitally and downloaded into new bodies (the new bodies are referred to as “sleeves”).

Of course, the more money you have, the better body (sleeve) you can obtain.

Most people have implants in their spinal columns called “stacks” which store all their memories. If their body dies, their “stack” can be stored indefinitely and then implanted into a new body. If your stack is somehow damaged, you’re dead for good. However, the very rich are able to keep backup copies of their stacks in remote storage, which they update regularly. This way, even if their stack is somehow destroyed, they can be “resleeved”.

The story revolves around our hero, Takeshi Kovacs (played by Joel Kinnaman), an accused terrorist who’s been “on ice” for the past 250 years and has now been revived in a new body. He was brought back (resleeved) in order to find the murderer of a very, very rich man named Laurens Bancroft. It was believed that Laurens Bancroft committed suicide, but the recently revived Bancroft believes that he was murdered, and has hired Kovacs in the hope that Kovacs will find his killer.

…and thus the story begins.

I’m definitely looking forward to watching the next seven episodes in this series (the first season consists of 10 episodes). I think this is a great start to the series and can’t wait to see where they’re going to go with it. If enjoy cyberpunk, science fiction or dystopian stories and are a Netflix subscriber, you might want to check out Altered Carbon.

Or you can check out the original novel HERE

Pseudonym

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I had a good chuckle today. I got an e-mail from someone asking me if I was using my real name or if I was blogging and publishing under a pseudonym. Believe me, if I was choosing to write under a pen name, I would have chosen a much easier name to pronounce and spell than “Hyttinen”

So yup. Roger Hyttinen is my real name. At one time I considered writing under a pen name but changed my mind — nothing beats the feeling of seeing your own name on your books.

Quote: And I flew

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I came across a quote attributed to Guillaume Apollinaire that really resonated with me today:

He said, “Come to the edge.”
I said, “I can’t; I’m afraid.”
He said, “Come to the edge.”
I said, “I can’t; I’ll fall off.”
He said, finally, “Come to the edge.”
And I came to the edge.
And he pushed me.
And I flew.

~ -Guillaume Apollinaire

Caturday Weekly Roundup

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Picture of a cute kittenThis is my “Caturday Roundup” post where my buddy Leo (the adorable kitten pictured to the right) helps me wrap up the week’s events and provide links to some interesting posts that I came across on the Web during the week.

On a Personal Level…

I stuck to my writing goal of 2,000 words a day – a continuous streak since January 1st. I started second edits on my series featuring sixteen year-old Nick, a high school tarot card reader who can see ghosts. So far, I’ve completed three books in the series with three more planned out. I’m hoping the first one will be released within a month. Keep an eye out for my sexy werewolf novel coming soon as well.

As we’re still in the throes of winter here in Milwaukee, I’ve been focusing mainly on work – there will be plenty of time to play in the summer. Although every time I walk past my motorcycle in the garage, I get a little weak-kneed, waiting for spring to arrive.

On the Web

Andrew Sullivan posted a short film (only 4 min.) that was inspired by the work of H.G. Wells. A beautiful, poetic work.

If sexy, shirtless French Firemen are your cup of tea, then you might want to check out this video. It features an entire fire department lip syncing to “Call Me Maybe” (the poor young men got into hot water for it too).

Another fun French video features two brothers (or brother-in-laws) who call themselves “Les Beaux Frères” and perform an incredible routine on French TV wearing only ….um… A towel.

Queen Elizabeth made the news this week. For the first time ever, according to this article, she publicly acknowledges gay people. Who wudda thunk it?

In the literary world, Anne Rice signs a petition to protest bullying of authors on Amazon.

Another author, Sarah Madison, wrote a wonderful piece entitled “Why a Middle-Aged Woman Identifies with “Frozen”. I saw this movie recently and fell in love with it! I can relate to many aspects of the film that the author mentions in the article And if you really like Frozen, check out the Spanish Version of the movie’s feature song “Let It Go” along with the words here.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits talked in this article about what he learned as a writer. Some Great Tips here.

For my blogger or wanna-be blogger friends out there, Courtney Carver wrote a great article on the Be More With Less blog entitled How to Start a Blog with Purpose.

For my photographer friends, how about a public restroom shaped like a compact camera? It’s true and you can read about it here.

And just for fun, Andrew Sullivan of the Dish posted Adam Baran’s video entitled Jackpot which depicts a teenager’s quest to acquire a treasure trove of gay porn magazines (the movie takes place in 1994, when Internet porn wasn’t so accessible).

In homage to one of the worst winters in the past 35 years, TowlerRoad blog featured a video of two young men Snow Swimming of all things!

And…that’s a wrap!

Looking Ahead

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Image - man looking through binoculars

December vacation all wrapped up.  So now it’s time to get back to work.  I have to admit that it’s been a tad difficult getting back into the swing of things.  I did spend some time reflecting on the past year and have decided to work on goals for the upcoming year, Chris Guillebeau style (I think he calls it his annual review).

At first, I felt that I did not accomplish that much in the past year.  But once I started thinking about all that I did, I realized that I wrote 15 books last year.  OK, so they weren’t great novels but rather computer courseware manuals for Office 2010 (I’m a technical writer in my other life).  While it may not seem like a huge amount for work, each manual runs between 250 – 300 pages.  So it is safe to say that I did, in fact, have a productive year.  I also did finish my fiction novel – working on the edits now.

Looking forward to another good year.  I have a lot on my plate for 2012 – which I’ll talk about a little at a time as the months progress.