Greetings Loyal Airmen, we hope the new year is starting out as wonderful to you as it has for us here in Hangar 27. Prior to the coming Christmas holidays, there were two new movies Ye Old Air Chief was very, very anxious to see.  One was SHERLOCK HOLMES, which we saw and in last week's Flight Log praised for its fun and sense of originality.  The other was writer/director James Cameron's blockbuster science fiction epic, AVATAR.  What with the amazing reception this film garnered upon its release, Valerie and the Air Chief made the decision to hold off seeing it until the furor over it had abetted…at least to a milder degree.  Ha.

The more we kept seeing the trailers and reading reviews both professionals and from our friends, it became clear that we should do our utmost to maximize our viewing of this adventure film.  To that end, this morning we drove up to Saco, Maine to see the movie in 3D at an I-Max theater.  And we are so glad we did so.  AVATAR is simply one of the greatest movies this fan has ever seen.  In the 58 years we've been going to the movies, (my Dad first dragged me along with him when I was five)  the Air Chief has seen every kind imaginable, from great to bloody awful. As a child we were mesmerized by the images on the giant silver screen and they fired our imagination.  Those images transported us to ancient times or far off civilizations and we gladly went along for the ride.  AVATAR is that kind of totally sensory immersion that defines why we love the movies so much.

Ever since we fell in love with science fiction at the age of eleven, we have dreamed of going to the stars, of visiting far off alien worlds and meeting the beings who inhabit them.  AVATAR did that for us within the first few scenes. Its powerful images carried us along to the planet PANDORA, a world we have only ever dared visit in our childlike daydreams.  And now, thanks to the magic of the movies, we were living those dreams.  We were once again captured by a pure sense of wonder while viewing a place totally new, yet oddly familiar all in one.  We've never forgoten the first time we saw the original KING KONG, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBING HOOD and STAR WARS.  Now AVATAR joins that august list of movies that have touched our very souls.  Thank you James Cameron, for making the magic live again.

Being such a big science-fiction fan, many of the elements of AVATAR were quickly recognizable to the Air Chief, from the theme of using humanoid avatars (cloned bodies) to explore hostile environments to the enhanced robotic Waldos employed by the space marines in the tale.  These are familiar trappings.  But what caught the Air Chief's wonder was the lush jungle world of the planet Pandora, and as we watched the story unfold, we kept having flashbacks to another such setting, one that clearly echoed Cameron's alien setting.  Back in 1975, popular sci-fi writer Alan Dean Foster wrote a novel called MIDWORLD which takes place on a fantastic jungle world very similar to that of Pandora, where ecology is so interconnected in myriad ways creating a single, spiritual entity that is the very planet itself.  If you see AVATAR and come away moved by it as the Air Chief, I would urge you to hunt up MIDWORLD and read it.  Then drop us a line and see if you don't share my thoughts on this terrific novel and its similarities to the movie here.

And finally we shift gears, once again returning to 221 B Baker Street and the world of the Great Detective.  Last year, Airship 27 Productions released SHERLOCK HOLMES – CONSULTING DETECTIVE Vol.One and it quickly went on to become the most successful title we have ever produced.  It continues to sell briskly and folks who have read it have written asking us to do more of these anthologies starring the Baker St. Sleuth. So now the wait is over.

Our Second Volume features five more original stories by Andrew Salmon, Bernadette Johnson, I.A.Watons and Josh Reynold.  It features a stunning cover by Canadian painter Ingrid Hardy, with interiors by the book's designer and the art director of Airship 27 Productions, Rob Davis. It is now available for sale at our on-line store simply by going to the flying dirigible logo to the left of this column and clicking on it.  If you enjoyed the new Sherlock Holmes movie and want to continue enjoying this character's adventures, then what better way than pick up this book.  As ever, thanks for your support.  This is our first book of 2010 and we are fairly excited about it.  We've set a goal of doing twelve books this year, one a month.  Can we do it?  Keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck. We've truly got some great titles on the way.  Some old favorites and others that we hope will surprise you in pleasant ways.

And there you have it Loyal Airmen, 2010 is kicking off in such a wonderful and positive way.  Let's keep this ride going for all year long.

Ron – Over & Out.