Be Back Later, Busy Rioting

What the hell?

Moby Dick is being made into a science fiction movie? If I had an ounce of faith left in movie makers I might be semi-excited. Instead I’m about to flip some cars over and throw molotov cocktails. Seriously, Melville is rising from the grave to bring a literary zombie apocalypse upon us.

Not to mention an already horribly B-rated Moby Dick: 2010. Renée, we will always have Xena.

You can find the source here.

What the hell? x 2

Piece of advice, if Patrick Stewart did it, leave it alone. You won’t beat it.

Now look, you made him sad.

I….I Work Out

Actually I don’t anymore. I’m about to change that later this week. My new job has a gym bigger than most gyms I have seen, but I digress.

What I am actually getting at is guilty pleasures and quirky things in general. Do you have a song/movie/book that is a guilty pleasure. Something that you really like but at the same time might be a little embarrassing if somebody knew about. I have posted about this before, but it is something that interests me. Not so much what it is that people find as guilty pleasures, but why they feel they are guilty pleasures.

I’ll be the polar bear and break the ice.

I like this song and I think the video is hilarious, even though it makes my fiancé question a multitude of things about me.

 

**DANGER WILL ROBINSON**

Probably not safe for work, children, and dead pan senses of humor.

 

This probably seems odd to you, fair enough.

Imagine reading a book and a character references this music video or song. Say it is some quirk or guilty pleasure of theirs. I bet you will remember that character, I bet you will color them in a bit more with your imagination crayon. See how that works?

I try, success varies, to instil as much life into my characters as possible. That can mean having them hate cats, listen to weird music, say odd things at the end of sentences.

“I say man, you have a duck on your head, what what.”

“I do not!”

“You most certainly do. I can’t imagine why that would be, what what.”

This is something that Sir Terry Pratchett does very well. In fact this is a real example. Pretty nifty eh?

Anyway, my question to you. What are some of your own personal guilty pleasures and quirks and what are some of your characters. Compare them and maybe you will see something interesting.

 

 

NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy

If you haven’t looked at list, you can find it here. This is a large-scale list that was voted on by 60k + people across 5k titles. Needless to say, it was quite the undertaking in terms of reeling in the titles. If you read in the two genres you will see many familiar titles, here is the question, and many other titles you probably aren’t familiar with or have even heard of.

Here is the top ten:

1. The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
3. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert
5. A Song of Ice And Fire Series by George R.R. Martin
6. 1984 by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I’ve read somewhat religiously consistent for a few years between audio books at work and physical copies at home. When I was younger I read with great enthusiasm until I found alcohol and girls, where there was a gap in reading and memory until I calmed down roughly four or five years ago, so I have thrown down on some books. The list of books to read is longer than the list of books that I have read and I don’t really see that changing……..ever…….. Which is exciting and incredibly annoying at the same time.

I have read probably 60/100 titles in the NPR list throughout the course of my life. Some beloved books are beat out by works I have never heard of, like The Handmaid’s Tale. This makes me incredibly curious because I sort of pride myself on being well read in the genre, or at least did. Before the final results were released I felt I had a good idea of how the list would turn out. I was wrong and right at the same time. In the top ten, five are my favorite writers. The only book on the top ten I haven’t read/listened to is LOTR, blasphemy I know but I just can’t get into it. I have tried multiple times.

So with the giant gorilla of bias out of the way, some of the standings I agree with and others leave me a little confused. Like why wasn’t Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series isn’t on the list and just two books are, or why NPR didn’t just split the genre’s separately. I truly believe that Hyperion should be higher than what it is, but I am a Simmons fan boy so there might be some slight favoritism. Any who, I have added more books to me ‘God Damn Printer Won’t Work – Books To Read List’ because of this – *shakes fist angrily*.

The timeline of these books are spread across decades old classics to new baby smell, and given the sheer volume of literature out in the world, the people who have read all 100 books are probably a minority.

So here is my question: How many of the titles have you NOT read and/or are virtually new to your ear and eye holes?

Sweet Best Served Cold and The Heroes US Covers

These are the new covers for Joe Abercrombie’s books Best Served Cold and The Heroes. Get a towel and some shades, these are awesome. All I can say is, FUCKING FINALLY! US get some sweet covers. HA UK, HA!

Sweet, eh?

I don’t know about you, but I think these covers are awesome, really awesome, in fact cyborg unicorns fighting mutant care bears with light-sabers awesome.. They add a realm of old school wonder with a sense of modernization and action that, had I not read/already owned his books, I would be picking these up off the shelf in instant curiosity if I saw them. Which would be the intention, so jolly good job.

He talks about marketing strategy on his blog post about these. If he is indeed correct about the potential draw of new readers, I could see thing starting a trend, and if I ever get published, I would want my covers to look something along the lines.

 

The paperback editions of Best Served Cold and The Heroes with these covers come out October 2011 and July 2012.

I wait impatiently.

Book Country

There is a new website designed to help budding writers not only get valued peer and professional feedback, but also help you break into the word business. All done before right? Here is the kicker, not only is it free, but you retain all of your rights. Did I just blow your mind? It gets better!

The peer system is designed for honest critiques. That means you cannot phone in it just to get your stuff reviewed, you have to contribute in some form. Before you can even submit anything, you have to review three other pieces of work. During your critiques, you can’t just say, “Oh I loved this story, it shows heart and depth,” and call it good. You have to give examples and specific details in order for your critique to count.

The site is heavily moderated to keep it friendly and honest, and the moderators aren’t afraid to banhammer any asshats. But to forewarn you, this isn’t for the super sensitive. Based on the reviews and feedback that I have seen, it is a tough love critique site. When something is written and it is awesome, you get praise, when something isn’t working or confusing, you are told in detail. Just know that if you submit a piece, prepare to receive some honest reviews.

Penguin Group put the whole thing together to help writers in their struggle to break into the business. The site launched in March April 26th and is still in beta, but in that time Penguin has bought two novels from writers on the site. Interested yet?

I need to finished my last touches on my book and slap get my happy ass on the website.

Edited: I had some information wrong about the website. Colleen Lindsay, who admins the website, corrected my wicked and asshattery ways. The crossed out stuff is wrong, ignore it or you can proceed to mock me in the comments. 

The website is HERE.

Sample Chapter

Here is a sample chapter from the book I have written. It is chapter one and sets up the scene up for the main character’s current screwed up situation. It is a science fiction novel that takes place in the far future where seven corporations have become the only forms of government. They compete ruthlessly for real estate and resources to become the major dominate human force. The story follows several characters as they journey through a maddening path of deceit and violence as one by one they learn that humanity isn’t alone in the universe.

You can read it HERE and over in the free samples section.

A Dance of Dragons

I finished this child sized book earlier this week. I’ve debated on whether to post my thoughts on it or not, but given how much I love George R.R. Martin’s work I thought I would go ahead. So here goes.

The book was long, really long. With the breadth of his books, If you can say one thing about Mr. Martin, you can say he can develop his characters in such a twisted and interesting fashion few others really achieve. I don’t know if this is a golden jacket club, secretive among writers, but I do notice few others can make me care/hate the characters in their books like Martin can. This reason alone is just half of why I love his work, the other half would be the harmony between the character’s plights and the overall construction of the story. I feel the elements are perfectly harmonized and add a level of  ‘something for everybody’ vibe. The kudzu fever of fan growth between word of mouth and the success of the HBO show A Game of Thrones is a testament to that.

This book is good, I want to start out and make it clear. It is better than most. However compared to his previous works, this book left me feeling empty relative to the gigantic series of ‘WTF OMG THAT IS AWESOME’ moments I had in the first three books. Much and more is happening throughout the world of Westeros and we get a front seat observation bubble through the roller coaster, I do me all of it. Sometimes the level of detail of the snippets into the POV character’s world felt unneeded and filler. Tyrion’s admiration of the dragon’s road was a little outside of character and need of the story, I felt. The addition of the one Jamie and the two Cercei chapters seemed out-of-place as well. The prologue just confused me, I have no understanding of the relevance of it at all.

The background weaving of the different POV chapters is master class. When chapters start to bleed together and actions happen that affect several important characters, we get to see the different sides of the story in such a unique and refreshing light that it never felt recycled. This is a staple in Martin’s work that really makes me a fan boy. Along with the ‘I know something bad is going to happen’ moments as things are being built up. Perhaps that is what the goal of Martin’s vision is. Get all the chess pieces in place for the next two books, where there will be many a face punches for the reader. If that is the case, then sally forth sir.

The hints and allusions are endless. Nuggets of information we want to believe or have theorized are dangled our in front of us to make us believe that Martin is going to zig, when in fact his zags. Then just when we think he is going to zig (because he just zagged), he zags again and throws us for a loop. Perhaps something is going on under the table that I, as the reader, won’t pick up on or notice until the next book. Given Martin’s knack for football tackling the reader when they aren’t looking, I wouldn’t put it past him. This is another reason I love Martin’s work, I never know what is going to happen.

The epic last chapter of Jon left me with my mouth open, and the last two chapters of Dany made me want to fist pump. Then the epilogue made me go, “Dammmn!” as a few things from the other books clicked in place. This book wasn’t without its rewards. Tyrion’s wit and humor is unchanging, but his maturity is showing. Jon’s need to be a leader first and a friend second is ripe with understanding. Evolution of the characters as their situation changes is, I feel, the name of the game with this book.

The only thing about this book that keeps me from placing it with the first three in terms of awesomeness, is the lack of revelations and HARD plot twists. There are some little ones and two big ones, but not what I would expect from having read the first three. Maybe Martin is leading us into a false sense of understanding or maybe the story has just plateaued until the cathartic release  of the last books. Who knows aside from the man himself?

The book is good and the craftsmanship that Martin has achieved is rivaled by few others. If you are a fan of fantasy, realism, visceral fantasy, knights, dragons, sex, gore, and awesomeness then you should really check out this series.

 

 

Now I look forward to the next big book being released next week. Ghost Story by Jim Butcher. I am very excited!

Neglected Cultures

I recently read an article over at SF Signal, you can find it here.

The gist is that some cultures are seemingly neglected in fantasy and science fiction. Most books tend to revolve around Western European societal structures and some people are simply wondering why? It probably is because when most people thing dragons and the like, they immediately go to King Arthur style settings. Why this is? I have no idea, but the answer isn’t going to be straight forward or easy.

Many different cultures have intriguing lore and settings that offer just as powerful and entertaining settings. But considering the troupe and tradition of our medieval settings, can a story be written in a non-traditional setting and still have a resounding impact? Before you answer yes, I ask you to consider the examples. The best that comes to mind is The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. There are other examples, but I’m going with Paolo’s because I’ve read his book and it was amazing. The book takes place in Thailand, post climate change Earth, and with genetic engineered food stores.

The book was awesome, it made you think or at least question the potential of genetic modifications in the reasonably distant future. But the point, it was nice to read something outside of the normal class and society structures. Had the book not been well written and executed, would there have been a serious disconnect because of this? Are we too saturated in our comfort to really branch out and experience other cultures in our reading diets?

 

What do you think? Are other cultures neglected in published works? Are we to familiar with Westernized ideas to fully dive in another culture when reading?

 

Loving Your Characters

So I have switched back to my book. I went back over everything I have written and it is still to my satisfaction. I’ve decided to add a few chapters for better character building and started writing POV chapters and one of my characters has taken a death grip over my writing. I have a character named Calve, and he is has two separate personalities. Both are assholes, but in different ways. Two separate people are living in the same body with different tastes, interests, and flaws. I am have more fun writing his chapters and story than I have the main character or any of the others. As far as I can tell, this can yield two things; Calve gets his own book or If I don’t slay the beast he will take over the book.

I have enjoyed writing all the characters in my book, some a little more than others. I feel that each person is distinct from everybody else and their relationships and dynamics are different and interesting that the reader will never feel bored. Granted I am borderline insane, some of the curve-balls I throw are really big.

I have had immense fun thinking about the people in my story and treating them like they exist, because in my head they do. It annoys my other half when I refer to them like they are real people. She hears the name is gets annoyed because they aren’t real. I am probably more out of it then I give myself credit for.

Do your character’s take over your stories? Do you treat them like they are real people?

Because we need randomness

This is an awesome video. An anime fan filmed some fight scenes and interactions with some cosplay geeks and made one sweet video. What is sad is that this is more accurate and better edited with CGI than half of the crap Hollywood flushes out.

Are you a fan of Game of Thrones? Watch this buddy comedy mash-up of Bronn and Tyrion.  Click HERE to see the video.

 

 

 

So where have I been? Well… for the past days I have been busy. Doing some planning, working, writing, hanging out with the Mrs and all of that good stuff. Essentially spending time not on a computer.