Solid debut for CW's 'Arrow'

Full disclosure, I'm a total fanboy when it comes to D.C.'s Green Arrow. Over the years I've collected more than 100 issues of the various volumes, including the fantastic three-issue series "The Longbow Hunters" and several pieces of Green Arrow art on my home-office wall. Yeah, I'm into the Green Arrow.
So, when I saw the CW was launching a gritty version, I was intrigued and a little apprehensive. After all, no one wants to see a favorite literary character diminished.
After the pilot episode I was pleased with what I saw. 
As with most of the origin stories Oliver Queen was marooned on an island for many years and had to tone his physique and hone his skills in order to survive. The opening scene where Ollie is rescued looks wonderful and you're given a chance to see his physical prowess.
When he returns home he sets out to make right some of the sins of his father. Prior to being marooned, Ollie was sailing the South China Sea with his father and others. Before taking his own life so his son would have enough resources to survive the island, the elder Queen told his son he "wasn't the man" Ollie thought he was. His wish was for his son to survive and right some wrongs.
After Ollie returns to Starling City he is quickly kidnapped by masked villains wanting to know what secrets his father shared.
From there we really see that not only is Ollie skilled in surviving alone on an island, he is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and parkour, that fancy-springy-bouncy running we're seeing more and more of in film and television.
After that we see Ollie set up his Green Arrow lair, and go through a bit of a training montage that includes a crazy salmon ladder sequence and of course mad-archery skills.
Green Arrow was known for using trick arrows in the comics and "Arrow" is no exception. How does a young man who was known for debauchery prior to being shipwrecked have this skill too. Another piece of the puzzle that will hopefully be revealed.
Stephen Amell does a fine job in the title role, portraying both the gritty hero and the recently returned playboy. 

Combine the action with themes of family honor, lost love, redemption and a whole lot of revenge and you've got a show that is full of promise. I can't wait until next week's episode.

Scott Nicholson's 'The Home' is a gripping read

 In “The Home” Scott Nicholson continues to create stories that grasp readers and clutch them tightly in hands tainted with the chill of the grave.

“The Home,” Nicholson’s fourth novel, was originally released in 2005, but has recently been available via free e-book downloads in anticipation of a possible feature film.  Whether one paid to purchase the book or received a free download, it’s well worth the read – just make sure you leave the lights on afterward.

“The Home” is the story of Freeman Mills, a young man transitioned to Wendover Home, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a familiar setting to Nicholson’s readers. Wendover, a former mental institution, now serves as a home for troubled youth. Mills is certainly troubled. Not only was he diagnosed with anti-social behavior and suicidal tendencies, his father, a noted psychiatrist who wound up in an insane asylum, used him as a subject in his experiments. Mills, who possesses the ability to read minds, finds himself challenged by the mysterious resident physician Dr. Kracowski, who has a taste for “alternative” therapies in the mysterious Room 13. Those experiments on the youths at Wendover Home leave them clinically dead for short period, and when they are revived they have been altered in a number of ways, including the development of psychic powers.

In his novels Nicholson turns the idyllic Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina into a region where fear rises from every hollow and horrors lurk behind every pine-covered ridge. It started in 2002 with “The Red Church” and the trend continues in “The Home.”

Nicholson crafted a tight work that quickly draws the reader into a blended world of science-fiction and horror that might even make Dr. Victor Frankenstein uneasy.
Since publishing “The Home” in 2005, Nicholson continues to explore the dreads found in the darkest corners of the Appalachian Mountains.

For more on Scott and his writings visit his website at www.hauntedcomputer.com