Have you ever watched the original Phantom of the Opera, starring that amazing man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney?  It was made in 1925, a silent film.  I watched it once on YouTube – you can see it in its entirety there.  Lon Chaney himself was co-director of that film.  They made a real effort to follow the book by Gaston Leroux, but the ending, to put it bluntly, sucks.  I suppose that in those days, it was necessary for the bad guy to die violently at the end, rather than allowing Erik the Phantom die of… Read More

I was thinking the other day that I wanted to reward myself in some tangible way for getting my first novel, ‘Disfigured’, finished and published as an eBook on Kindle.  I had an old, cheapo paperback copy of Gaston Leroux’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’ that I referred to extensively for background info on Erik’s life.  I decided I would treat myself to a collectible hardcover version, perhaps with some illustrations. I was hoping I might find a book with the original Andre Castaigne illustrations, which were included in the 1911 book.

I researched the various translations and versions… Read More

I’ve been thinking about Alan Rickman lately, because I realized it has been just a little over six months since he left us behind.  I have harbored a crush on him for many years, ever since I saw him in ‘Sense and Sensibility‘ to be exact.  When I come across pictures of him on the internet I am reminded all over again why he was so crush-worthy.  He was genuinely sexy, in my opinion, but he seemed like someone who didn’t know he was sexy. Or if he did know, he didn’t care.

As he aged, Alan got… Read More