Prepping for the return of Heroes July 24, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : TV , 1 comment so far
In addition to reading all the Heroes graphic novels this summer, I’m also listening to last.fm to see how often Hayen Panettiere comes up in My Neighbourhood Station. (Check out those related artists, and feel free to leave embarrassing comments)
And for the people who will undoubtedly arrive here from Google image search, last.fm has a fairly decent collection of Hayden Panattiere pictures.
Finally, for those who don’t know, Heroes is back on September 22nd with a 2 hour premiere. I could have sworn at one point they said it was going to be a 3 hour premiere (I assumed this was to make up for the writers’ strike-shortened Season 2). Chuck returns September 29th.
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday 7/23 July 23, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentSo, despite spending 3 days in NYC (working during the day, partying at night) and then driving 13 hours on Saturday (not to mention spending 4 hours in Scranton), I managed to get 446 words this week, topping the 416 cobbled together over the prior 2 weeks.
Another random picture (taken by my wife, painstakingly color edited by me; you can click on it for a larger version):
Add to the Reading List: Karen Traviss’ City of Pearl (Free!) July 22, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentClick here to get Karen Traviss’ first book City of Pearl for free, available until August 1st. Traviss is the author of four Star Wars Republic Commando books and three of the Legacy of the Force books (of which I’ve read one).
You can preview City of Pearl with this fancy little widget:
The Spirit (from SF Signal) July 18, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , 1 comment so far
I had just seen some posters up (NYC-style 8×2 glue-up posters) for The Spirit last night, and then found SFSignal’s “At the Trailer Park” (one of my favorite series on their site) with a trailer for The Spirit.
Oh, wait, I still haven’t seen Sin City nor 300. It does look good, though… but not as good as Terminator: Salvation (trailer also featured in the SF Signal post).
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday July 16, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : The Nine Mothers, Writing , add a commentNow, I didn’t do WCW last week because I was on a schooner, sailing around islands in Maine. I should have been writing (well, at least, I should have been writing more), but instead I read Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. I did at least get through the whole book. And in the mean time (over the past 2 weeks), I wrote 414 words of fiction (for The Nine Mothers). I also got a lot of thinking and note-taking in as well.
And to make this post a little more interesting, here’s a picture I lomo-ized from the trip:
Movie To See: The Fall July 15, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Movies , add a commentFrom Jeff VanDermeer (click through for the trailer on YouTube):
The Fall is one of the most visually striking movies you’re likely to see, but the fantasy element is firmly tied to the emotional resonance of the realistic scenes set in a hospital. Some reviewers have complained that the fantasy element is inconsistent, but it is in fact, for the most part, brilliantly inconsistent. [emphasis his]
A man who has lost the use of his legs tells stories to a child to manipulate her into getting him morphine. He has no interest in internal consistency – and in fact as his aims change and the child’s interests shift, the story shifts, as it should. If the child eventually inhabits the fantasy story, it is because she has taken some ownership of that story. The best description I can give for this movie is that it’s Pan’s Labyrinth meets Baron Munchausen. It has neither the escapist quality of the latter nor the political element of the former. It also features a bit of a self-absorbed bastard as the lead, but he has good reasons for his attitude.
It does look pretty awe-some, and seems like a very unique concept to boot. The non-story (non-fantasy) part can’t be any worse than The Cell, right? That was rhetorical, but if it had an answer, that answer would be “No”.
The Fall only has a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I can see that half of all movie reviewers would not fully understand and/or embrace the concept. I’m pretty sure I’ll be with Jeff, and the 53% of fresh reviewers, on this one, though.
Update on Anathem (Neal Stephenson) July 14, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Books , add a commentNot sure when this popped up, but there is now a little more lengthy description of the plot of Neal Stephenson’s book on Amazon (comes out in September):
Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world.
Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside “saecular” world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent’s walls. Three times during history’s darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent’s gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious “extras” in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn’t seen since he was “collected.” But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.
Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.
Click here for previous information posted about Anathem.
Multitasking July 5, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentThis list from Elizabeth Bear makes me feel better about having several projects started/in progress.
[Writing] Organization July 3, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentSince I used to spend way too much time trying to figure out how professional writers, you know, write, I wanted to throw out a blockquote - from this post by Diana Pharaoh Francis on SF Novelists - to others who might be looking to assimilate such information.
When I write, I put the chapters in separate word files and print them out as I go. This is partly as an extra backing up device, and partly because sometimes I find it easier to flip pages looking for what I’m after than digging through computer files, trying to guess just which chapter I mentioned that particular esoteric item in. I can also mark notes on the pages for later and this prevents me from going back and revising too much before I really know what I need to revise.
I take post-it notes and write the chapters numbers on them and tape them to the beginning of each chapter so I can flip through more easily. I put them in a binder with one of those plastic sleeves on the front that let you slide in a cover sheet. I then slide in a cover sheet with the title of the book on it.
So this is what I’ve done today. I’ve emptied the recently finished book out of the binder and bundled it up with the outline that turned out to be not so useful and the pages of notes and etc. that I had made. And then I printed out a title sheet for the new book and slid it in and have printed out my chapters for it and my (eventually useless, I’m sure) outline.
I’d probably just buy a new binder to put the new book in… nevertheless, it’s good to find out how one published author does it.
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday - 7/2 July 2, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentOkay, I’ve decided to revamp my WCW. So, instead of provide a somewhat humiliating day-by-day accounting, I’m going to just sum up the word counts by project. This will be humiliating in a whole different, I’m never actually going to finish anything, sort of way. But it will also allow me to include word counts from non-fiction projects so I won’t feel like I didn’t write anything.
The only bad part is, for this week at least, I didn’t actually keep track of how much I wrote in the Fantasy Draft Guide… but I did note where I started and where I was at a couple points during the writing, so I have a rough idea. So, here it is:
Fiction Writing (all projects): 0
Give Me The Rock Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide (non-fiction): ~2000
Whew. Okay, glad that’s over with.