Monday, October 25, 2004
Odds and Ends
Blogworld
What happened on October 20th? There was a post on Choose Death - I saw it, but now it's gone. There was a post on Elf Notes - I saw it, but now it's gone.
At the writing desk
Ten weeks since I sent stories to EQMM and AHMM. So far, nothing interesting in the mail, but no rejection letters, either. Could the slush piles at these publications really be so much more overrun with submissions than the slush pile at F&SF?
I started a new story last week. I think it's a nifty little idea. The more I work with it, the more the idea keeps evolving, so I feel like that's a pretty good sign. I will have a draft finished by Thursday.
At the movies
Two thumbs up to the latest zombies-take-over-the-world flick Shaun of the Dead. Imagine that a group of friends who are both more eccentric and funnier than the gang on Friends fight for their lives against an ever-growing population of zombies. There are any number of scenes well worth the price of the movie. I'm afraid that telling you mine would give away too much of the plot!
Team America: World Police.... I find it difficult to say that I liked the movie. Yes, I laughed at some of the gags, but the songs were the best part of the movie - so much so that I found myself watching the action onscreen in anticipation of getting to the next song and phooey with this other stuff, like plot points. My favorite -- a love song which uses a simile that involves director Michael Bay and the movie Pearl Harbor.
On the bookshelf
I've been reading Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy - Hominids (2002), Humans (2003), and Hybrids (2003). The trilogy looks at the question, "What if evolution had happened differently, so that the Neanderthals thrived and the homo sapiens died out?" Sawyer uses the quantum computer as the plot device that allows the reality in which that did happen to connect with the contemporary period that is essentially our own. I think the exploration of 'the other' works pretty well, largely because Sawyer presents both the Neanderthal culture and the 'human' culture and admits to the quirky features of each instead of simply making one seem more (or less) appealing in comparison to the other. Sometimes there's a little too much happy coincidence going on - as in the way Neanderthals and 'humans' learn to communicate rather easily - and sometimes relationships between characters seem to develop too quickly, particularly given that he had three books to allow those relationships to develop. Many of the ideas that Sawyer presents reminded me of Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553375407/qid=1098722629/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-9209317-7315031). The trilogy read in conjunction with this book might make for some interesting discussions. The final book won't be released as a paperback until next month, and I'm soooo looking forward to it.
The only other book that I'm looking forward to with as much - ok, to be honest, even more - anticipation is George R. R. Martin's fourth novel in the Songs of Fire and Ice series, A Feast for Crows (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553801503/qid=1098722757/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-9209317-7315031). The end of the third novel left me reeling. I'm tempted to break my rule and buy the hardback when it comes out simply because I must know the rest of the story. The GRRM RRetrospective (http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=martin&Category_Code=B&Product_Count=65) released by Subterranean Press also looks really, really interesting. Good luck finding a copy, however!
What happened on October 20th? There was a post on Choose Death - I saw it, but now it's gone. There was a post on Elf Notes - I saw it, but now it's gone.
At the writing desk
Ten weeks since I sent stories to EQMM and AHMM. So far, nothing interesting in the mail, but no rejection letters, either. Could the slush piles at these publications really be so much more overrun with submissions than the slush pile at F&SF?
I started a new story last week. I think it's a nifty little idea. The more I work with it, the more the idea keeps evolving, so I feel like that's a pretty good sign. I will have a draft finished by Thursday.
At the movies
Two thumbs up to the latest zombies-take-over-the-world flick Shaun of the Dead. Imagine that a group of friends who are both more eccentric and funnier than the gang on Friends fight for their lives against an ever-growing population of zombies. There are any number of scenes well worth the price of the movie. I'm afraid that telling you mine would give away too much of the plot!
Team America: World Police.... I find it difficult to say that I liked the movie. Yes, I laughed at some of the gags, but the songs were the best part of the movie - so much so that I found myself watching the action onscreen in anticipation of getting to the next song and phooey with this other stuff, like plot points. My favorite -- a love song which uses a simile that involves director Michael Bay and the movie Pearl Harbor.
On the bookshelf
I've been reading Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy - Hominids (2002), Humans (2003), and Hybrids (2003). The trilogy looks at the question, "What if evolution had happened differently, so that the Neanderthals thrived and the homo sapiens died out?" Sawyer uses the quantum computer as the plot device that allows the reality in which that did happen to connect with the contemporary period that is essentially our own. I think the exploration of 'the other' works pretty well, largely because Sawyer presents both the Neanderthal culture and the 'human' culture and admits to the quirky features of each instead of simply making one seem more (or less) appealing in comparison to the other. Sometimes there's a little too much happy coincidence going on - as in the way Neanderthals and 'humans' learn to communicate rather easily - and sometimes relationships between characters seem to develop too quickly, particularly given that he had three books to allow those relationships to develop. Many of the ideas that Sawyer presents reminded me of Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553375407/qid=1098722629/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-9209317-7315031). The trilogy read in conjunction with this book might make for some interesting discussions. The final book won't be released as a paperback until next month, and I'm soooo looking forward to it.
The only other book that I'm looking forward to with as much - ok, to be honest, even more - anticipation is George R. R. Martin's fourth novel in the Songs of Fire and Ice series, A Feast for Crows (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553801503/qid=1098722757/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-9209317-7315031). The end of the third novel left me reeling. I'm tempted to break my rule and buy the hardback when it comes out simply because I must know the rest of the story. The GRRM RRetrospective (http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=martin&Category_Code=B&Product_Count=65) released by Subterranean Press also looks really, really interesting. Good luck finding a copy, however!
