Duh-duh-Deadwood

The other night I was sorting through some of my DVDs and I came across a promotional disc for the first episode of Deadwood. What is this? I asked myself, scratching my beard as if the answer hid somewhere inside it. I have the first episode of Deadwood here and yet I've never watched it? Am I duh-duh-dumb?

Well, let's backtrack. You see, in college I knew a girl that worked promotions for some distribution company. She got us free tickets to movies, advance tickets to not-yet-released flicks, posters, and, I guess, promotional DVDs. So I think it was when I went to see the craptastically overladen sapfest Miracle for free that I got a gift bag. Inside that gift bag, among other things, was a free DVD of the first episode of Deadwood, a show that was just about to come out. Or something like that. It might have already been out at that point; I've never had HBO and so I can't claim to truly know this.

I'm pretty sure I tossed the DVD aside with hopes to watch it at some point. Unfortunately, that never happened. Even after hearing about Deadwood and how great a show it was, I still never dug through my collection to retrieve that which I had not watched. That is, until the other night.

So, the first episode was definitely enough to get me interested in the show. It's a Western set in Deadwood, Dakota Territory in the 1870s, a destination rising in popularity due to the prospect of gold in the Black Hills. The show follows a bunch of characters around--some historic names such as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Al Swearengen--as the camp grows from a stop on the road to a thriving town. The premiere episode is mostly setup, allowing the characters to get to Deadwood, and once there, interact with the folk.

As expected, the show's language and graphic nature is R-rated. Granted I know nothing about the Old West, but I found it a bit odd that everyone seemed to enjoy cursing so much. I liked the hidden politics of Al and his saloon of prostitutes, and Seth Bullock is an aimable fellow: quiet, law-abiding, and yet forceful when need be. I'm not quite certain of what his backstory is and why he and his partner headed to Deadwood to start a business, but I'm assuming some of that is revealed later. Also, pigs eating the dead? Sure, sure.

Anyways, Deadwood's got me hooked. I think I might have to splurge and buy the first season. Damn you, HBO, for your expensive DVDs. Actually, in retrospect, I'm glad I didn't watch this college because then I'd have had to sell all my school books and possibly my body to science just to watch the rest of the season. See? It's all working out in the end.

Now, if you're a fanboy/fangirl, feel free to yell at me for whatever reason you'd like.

Hugo Nominations 2007

Novel
Michael F. Flynn, Eifelheim (Tor)
Naomi Novik, His Majesty’s Dragon (Del Rey)
Charles Stross, Glasshouse (Ace)
Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End (Tor)
Peter Watts, Blindsight (Tor)

Novella
Robert Reed, “A Billion Eves”
Paul Melko, “The Walls of the Universe”
William Shunn, “Inclination”
Michael Swanwick, “Lord Weary’s Empire”
Robert Charles Wilson, “Julian”

Novelette
Paolo Bacigalupi, “Yellow Card Man”
Michael F. Flynn, “Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth”
Ian McDonald, “The Djinn’s Wife”
Mike Resnick, “All the Things You Are”
Geoff Ryman, “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter”

Short Story
Neil Gaiman, “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”
Bruce McAllister, “Kin”
Tim Pratt, “Impossible Dreams”
Robert Reed, “Eight Episodes”
Benjamin Rosenbaum, “The House Beyond the Sky”

Related Book
Samuel R. Delany, About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews
Joseph T. Major, Heinlein’s Children: The Juveniles
Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon
John Picacio, Cover Story: The Art of John Picacio
Mike Resnick & Joe Siclari, eds., Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches

Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Children of Men
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
The Prestige
A Scanner Darkly
V for Vendetta

Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Battlestar Galactica, “Downloaded”
Doctor Who, “Army of Ghosts” and “Doomsday”
Doctor Who, “Girl in the Fireplace”
Doctor Who, “School Reunion”

Editor, Short Form
Gardner Dozois
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams

Editor, Long Form
Lou Anders
James Patrick Baen
Ginjer Buchanan
David G. Hartwell
Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Professional Artist
Bob Eggleton
Donato Giancola
Stephan Martiniere
John Jude Palencar
John Picacio

Semiprozine
Ansible
Interzone
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet
Locus
The New York Review of Science Fiction

Fanzine
Banana Wings
Challenger
The Drink Tank
Plokta
Science-Fiction Five-Yearly

Fan Writer
Chris Garcia
John Hertz
Dave Langford
John Scalzi
Steven H. Silver

Fan Artist
Brad W. Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Frank Wu

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (not a Hugo)
Scott Lynch
Sarah Monette
Naomi Novik
Brandon Sanderson
Lawrence M. Schoen

---

Interesting list. My prediction is that Novik, Shunn, Bacigalupi, Gaiman, Phillips, The Prestige, Battlestar Galactica, Williams, Anders, Giancola, Interzone, The Drink Tank, Scalzi, and Lynch, in this order, will walk away with Hugos. Kind of not surprised by a lot of the noms, but I'd have liked to have seen more variety. Not a single woman in the novella, novelette, or short story category. Hello? Catherynne Valente? Sarah Monette? Also, though certainly not a woman, no Laird Barron on here for "Hallucigenia"? Pshaw. That's a real shame.

Maybe more thoughts on this later. Er, maybe.

Deathly Hallows cover art

The cover for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has just been released! I like it. Has nice colors to it. But what's that around Harry's neck? And he's definitely all grown up in this one. Anyways, 114 days left to go.

Day Watch trailer

Comes out June 1, 2007. Sweet!

Puzzle Quest demo

Infinite Interactive has put out an interesting product. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is a hybrid of the overly familiar Bejeweled formula and the OCD-ness of every roleplaying game ever made. The result: addictive fun! The game has been released for both the PSP and the Nintendo DS, but to get fans foaming at the mouth its developer has released a fairly involving demo for the PC.

The game opens with a character selection, letting the player select either a druid, a knight, a warrior, or a wizard. As is assumed, each class comes with their own specific stats, traits, and special qualities. I'm a druid; always have been, ever since the days of Diablo II. From here the story opens with some cutscenes, a map, and a booming soundtrack. Your character travels the world, accepting quests and battling monsters all while gaining experience. This is where the puzzle game takes heart.

You and your opponent take turns swapping tiles to get a row of three of the same. A row of coins gives you money to buy equipment and weapons, green and purple and blue add to your mana pool, and skulls deal damage to your opponent's life total. Four of anything gains you an extra turn. The addition of spells and chained attacks adds a lot of variety to the game, and though the beginning battles are very easy and basic they begin to gradually get harder.

So far the puzzle parts outshine the RPG parts. The story is quite ho-hum and nothing really to get excited about. It's just a means to an end, that's all. The only problem is that anyone can play Bejeweled online for free so you have to really like the RPG aspects to consider purchasing this for either the PSP or DS. Unfortunately, I'm content playing the demo (though there's a level cap for your characters in it). Still worth checking out though.

Battlestar Galactica season finale?

To say that Battlestar Galactica has officially jumped the shark would be an insult to fish everywhere. Who knew that Bob Dylan played such an integral part in the Cylons' masterplan? Frak. I'm honestly disappointed.

Thank goodness no one can take away the miniseries and Season 1 from me. Now there's a show that was perfection, from beginning to end. Now, more like a mess of things. Some interesting, some notsomuch. "All Along the Watchtower," really? Really?

Frak.

Blogging thoughts

I first created Wistful Writings to document and track my writing progression, noting submission statuses, rejections, and acceptances as they happened. I also used it to pimp the numerous reviews I do and occasionally rant on whatever needed ranting at the time. After some months I haven't felt the need to update with every rejection that I now get, cutting back a lot of potential posts (i.e., wah wah waaaaah editors loathe me!). This blog has been pretty linear since its birth. Well, things will probably start to change. I think. Maybe.

No, they'll be changing.

In order to keep things disconnected, I made Game Beliefs, a blog that would be devoted to any videogame-related topics. As I soon discovered, I do not have much to say about videogames. No wait, scratch that. I do have a lot to say about videogames, just not enough to keep a blog constantly updated with daily content. So now when I feel like complaining about how trite every RPG ultimately is or how awesome Kratos is with all his godly powers I'll just do it here.

I'm also a bit of a music junkie. You know the people that say, "Oh, I listen to just about everything...except country." Well, that's me. Except the "except country" part. I'm very open when it comes to tunes, and I always find a way to appreciate music in just about every form out there (Note: not American Idol). I can go from Underoath to Page France to Placebo to The Audition to Devon Sproule to Tom Waits to Daft Punk to Wilco to Cat Power to Alexisonfire to Kathleen Edwards to Gretchen Wilson to The Visionaries to The Pixies to Wolf Parade without missing a beat. Go ahead and Google some of those and see how much they vary, both in style, form, and presentation. Having used to review CDs and concerts in the past for my college newspaper and magazine, I've sort of missed it.

I'm not big on politics, but I do stay up-to-date with the current affairs of the world (it's the journalist in me). Besides, how could anyone ignore a story about a Wisconsin man having sex with a dead deer?

I guess in the end I want this place to be a hub for different topics and not limit my audience (if I even have one; hello? anyone? Bueller? Bueller?). So, be prepared to see some different posts over the new few weeks. Or if you have something to suggest, I'm all ears. My momma always said, "Life was like a box of bloggers, you never know what you're gonna get."

Okay, not my real momma. She doesn't talk like that.

Hate mail

Fact: The USPS hates science-horror.

Got my contributor copies (along with money! I like money!) for Apex Digest, #9 in the mail yesterday. I think I can safely say that I've never seen a package so beat up and trampled on before in all my times of going to and fro from the mailbox. This was a medium-sized envelope, probably around 8" X 11", and appeared to have been drop-kicked over a dozen times. There were black smudges everywhere, all four ends smushed and wrinkled worse than your grandmother after a solid three-hour soak in the tub. The envelope was also ripped open along its side; luckily, the magazines and my check did not fall out. I'm guessing that some chafed postal worker got curious, took a quick look at the type of fiction Jason Sizemore likes to buy, stuffed everything back inside the envelope, and felt the need to let his inner soccer player out.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Fastest acceptance ever

Well, I heard back from Shane Jiraiya Cummings this morning: he's accepted one of my five drabbles, "Something," for publication in the Black Box e-anthology. Very cool, and it looks like I'm in excellent company so far. Lucy Sussex, Amanda M Hayes, and Jason Sizemore, among others. I wonder if I can find a market for the other four drabbles...

Now I can get back to the other two short stories that are having me consider my sanity on an hourly basis. One is a rewrite that seems to need to be submitted by April 1, and the other is for a submission period that opens on March 23. No rush on the second one but I'm trying to balance my writing time between them both and it's starting to make my left twitch. See? Being a writer has its perks! Oh wait...nevermind.

Children of Men comes out on DVD next week. Since I missed it in the theatres, this is one I'm definitely going to be picking up. Blade Runner-esque + Clive Owen + Michael "I Can Do No Wrong" Caine = happiness/life/fill in your own term of bliss. Remember, kids, don't buy Eragon! Buy good DVDs!

Drabbling

I needed a distraction from one of my countless projects and decided to whip up five drabbles to submit to the Black Box e-anthology. It's the for-charity followup to Brimstone's previous Shadow Box. There's no money to gain from this, only a free copy of the e-book. But since it's asking only for drabbles (stories under 120 words) I figured why not, might be fun. It twas.

Now, the toughest challenge of drabbling (can I trademark this term?) was keeping my stories at 120 and under. Think it's easy? Well, it's not, especially for me as I tend to get wordy in my prose, sometimes to the point of excessive. And even then it's intentional. I popped out five quick tales of horrific happenings and then spent most of the time trying to cut them down. If any writers want to learn how to "kill their darlings," this is a good experience. You aren't just line editing to line edit, you're trimming and cutting and dissecting with the malice of a doctor who is operating on the man his wife's cheated on him with: anything stupid or unnecessary can (and must) go. Snip! Snip!

It's a shame there isn't a larger market for drabbles and short-shorts. We'll see if Black Box wants any of them; if not, they were still enjoyable to do. Plus, distraction is always fun. Same with procrastination. They're like my own private angel/devil shoulder team. In fact, I'm hanging out with them even as I type this post...

More Eragon hate

So, Eragon is coming out on DVD very soon (er, tomorrow actually) and all I can ask of humanity is that they not buy this film. Supporting such dribble only encourages more dribble. Seriously, do we need to see deleted scenes of boy wonder and his blue lizard scampering around Alagaesia/New Zeleand/Cheeseland. We don't. No one does. Not even that person you hate a lot, not them. This piece of dragon dung came out in theatres only a few months back and it's already releasing on DVD. I think the bigwigs behind the flick are trying to earn back some money--and as fast as possible. Do not buy this film. Instead, here are some things you can do with the twenty bucks you'd save:

• Wait and buy Pan's Labyrinth when it's released
• Pick up a jug of Bacardi's Long Island Rum
• Buy a goldfish or three
• Trick an old man into dancing for the money
• Clean socks are always a necessity
• Lots of Nyquil taken at five minute intervals is more fun than Eragon
• Strip club, for the fellas
  
• Shoe store, for the felines (er, females)
  
• Hire a bully to punch an idiot in the face, twice if they purchased Eragon
• Pick up the latest issue of Apex Digest; I promise you that the table of contents alone is better than anything Christopher Paolini could "imagine"
• Actually, so long as you spend that $20 on anything but the Eragon DVD you should feel pretty damn happy

Well, I feel better now. And in case any of you forgot what I thought about the movie, here's my review again.

Robotika review!

So, that "Take a chill pill!" book, yeah, I didn't like it. Check out my review of Robotika by Alex Sheikman and Joel Jason O’Chua, which is not as wrathful as I'd originally intended. Guess I'm growing soft...

Apex #9 now out!

Looks like Apex #9, containing my piece of flash fiction "Sonorous," is out. Isn't it pretty? ::pets computer screen:: Yes, it's pretty. Buy an issue or two or three. Check out the wonderful lineup:

Fiction
"The Sum of His Parts" – Kevin J. Anderson
"The End of Crazy" – Katherine Sparrow
"The Gunslinger of Chelem" – Lavie Tidhar
"Locked In" – Mary Robinette Kowal
"Projector" – Daniel LeMoal
"At the 24-Hour" – William F. Nolan
"Pyramus and Thisbe" – Jeremy Adam Smith
"Sufficently Advanced" – Bev Vincent
"Don’t Show Your Teeth" – Rob D. Smith
"Cain XP11: The Voice of Thy Brother’s Blood (Part 1)” – Geoffrey Girard
"Poppet’s Left Impression" – Brandy Schwan

Parting Shot: "Sonorous" – Paul Abbamondi

Nonfiction
"Unspeakable Horrors: The Legacy of Darkness in the Visual Arts of Western Culture" – Deb Taber
"Kill Me Then" – Alethea Kontis

Interviews
Kevin J. Anderson

Happy Green Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! You can thank this fellow below for all that green beer you're drinking and enjoying. Really, thank him. Or else he'll bring back all the snakes...

Chill out

So, if you have two characters conversing in a futuristic world where science is always five steps ahead of humanity, do not have one of these genetically enhanced personas say "Take a chill pill!" as I will hate your book from that moment on and only look for things to hate on more and then you will know the wrath that is Paul, He Who Hates Stupid Stocky Phrases such as:

• Take a chill pill!
• Don't have a cow!
• Like, whatever!
• Yeah, girlfriend!
  
• Take a chill pill!

Also, since this atrocious phrase is being uttered in a future where cars fly, folks can see behind themselves using circling mirrored visors that also plays movies, and samurais cut people in half with powerized swords, I will begin to wonder what a chill pill actually is or could be. Like, is it a breath mint? Did you just tell someone to take a breath mind? I doubt it. Is it a pill that acts like an internal A.C. unit? Huh? Is it? See what your stupid characters are making me think about. I hate your book. Wrathful review forthcoming...

Pi time

Happy Pi Day, everyone!

Speaking of mathematical constants, here's a list of a number of things I need to do:

• Review Robotika by Alex Sheikman and Joel Jason O'Chua, which should be up in a few days or so.
  
• Read and review Dreadful Skin by Cherie Priest.
• Read and review Brasyl by Ian McDonald.
• Er, try and do a Greenhorn comic to make up for the one I didn't do this week. Maybe. We'll see.
  
• Finish a story (either "The Morning Gift" or "The Lady of Jeweled Dreams") to submit to the MZB's Sword and Sorceress 22 anthology.
• Work on rewrite of "The Farrah Job."
• Hey, how about I not waste all my time playing Rogue Galaxy and trying to make every stupid sword from every stupid item I find? Hey, how about that? Huh?
  
• Continue work on shh secret project.
• I've run out of coffee creamer. ::cries like a loon::
• Gawd, I'm no longer even listing things to do here, just complaining off the cuff.
• What's with the weather lately?
• I want a kitty cat.
  

In other news, got a 16-day "after careful consideration, we have decided not to accept..." from The Town Drunk. Bah! This story keeps getting close at every place I send it. Either that means it has a chance elsewhere or I need to sit down with it and re-read the sucker. I'll try one more place for now. I'm a masochist, I guess.

Ack, LOST is on!

Book tournament

So, FBS-ers Brian and Patrick have put together a book tournament of sorts. Here's the brackets for the All Time tourney and the Best of 2006 tourney. And here's the rules for it all. I'll leave the rest up to y'all to figure out.

It's a neat idea, and there's definitely some interesting battles (Wolfe versus Pratchett?!), but I won't be able to participate too much. Nine times out of ten I've only read one book of the two in the challenge and thus am out of luck to offer a balanced opinion. Either way, it seems to be gathering some good discussion on the boards. That's good enough for me.

300 - Review

I expected to experience three things from Zack Snyder's 300, the in-your-face alternative history romp that's based on Frank Miller's graphic novel: boobs, battles, and boisterous music. So, in that regard, I was not disappointed. But after the thirtieth slow-motion, ultra-choreographed, and goretastic battlefield scene I began to lose interest with it all. Like all movies based on chunks of history (Pearl Harbor, The Alamo, World Trade Center, and yuck, Titantic), the ending is often known beforehand. I expected all 300 Spartans to die before the credits rolled. I also expected to care that they died (not shed a tear, of course, as this is a manly Frank Miller flick and there's no crying in baseball). Ultimately, I left dry-eyed but rather unmoved.

300 is concerned with the Battle of Thermopylae, a historical event made by men that were as proud and mighty as legends get. The King of Sparta, Leonidas (played by roaring Gerard Butler), decides to lead his army of 300 (or so) soldiers against the tremendous number of Persians that mean to enslave them. King Xerxes, a demigod glittered in fine jewelry, is out to becoming King of Kings, so to speak. It is this battle that will shake all of Greece, eventually hard enough to get them to band together to fight against the Persians and bring out the world's first democracy.

It's David and Goliath times 100,000 Persians, and David and Goliath is a fine tale of the little man conquering the more massive. It works on different layers and can be thoroughly entertaining if set up correctly and handled with an eye toward more quietly thematic scenes than repetitive hack-and-slashes that continue to prove that, yes, tiny men can cut down larger men. It's all in that Spartan training, you know. But 300 doesn't do this well. Instead it seems more concerned with style and finesse, which, I will admit, are near perfect. The art style is consistent (everything is washed in a deep sepia, but my favorite scene involved a flowing oracle as she moved in streams of white and blue and purple smoke) and there's a sharp attention to detail. Not historical detail, but minute details. There were no war rhinos back then. Sorry, just didn't happen.

Character development is what was really missing from 300. We're following a group of Spartans who, we've been told via voiceover, are raised by the roughest rules and trained to be heartless killing machines. They are more than willing to toss a weak child off a cliff than work at it and train the boy to be strong. So when the moment comes that a man loses his son in battle everyone is expected to stop, drop, and emote. Wouldn't Spartan law consider the boy weak for dying? Wouldn't he be frowned upon or made an example of? Here, it's not touched on as this is a movie and no one probably wants to see a father not care after his boy is taken out by some random Persian. So we're supposed to care. But it's hard when you know no one's name or history, and that's the problem. We learn very little of Leonidas and of his comrades. Each one seemed to fill their quota of "ready for glory" cheese lines, and then they died.

The movie flip-flops from the battles to the more subdued events taken part by Queen Gorgo (played by the beautiful Lena Headey), as she tries to rally the people of Sparta to go out and support their king. But no, they can't, it's festival week, or something like that. She does one thing well, and proves that Spartan women are just as verocious as Spartan men. Her climax, while a bit heavy on the movie-ish lines, was one of the highlights of 300.

For me, the best part of 300 was the tidbits of fantasy: the hunchback, the butcher executioner, the goat/deer-headed thing playing the lute, even Xerxes himself was interesting eye candy. These helped to break the story from being Troy's distant cousin (you know, the one no one talks to). I would have liked to have seen these creatures intergrated more into the story, rather than just being fodder for the slaugher. The hunchback's story arc (no pun intended) felt rather unfinished. Technically, the movie itself was unfinished but if they showed any more longwinded battle scenes I might have started to twitch. In the end, 300 has some pretty images, several boob shots, people losing limbs, great costumes, and little meat on the plot bone. So see it for all the shiny bits, but really, don't expect much. And remember, there's no crying in war. Unless you take an arrow to the neck. You can cry all you want then.

Shimmer interview

Mary Robinette Kowal just sent me an email to let me know that an interview I did with the fine folks of Shimmer awhile back is now public on their site. The interview was originally hidden away in a private section, available only to those that read Issue #3 and found the secret password within a story's text. Can't believe it's been a year since I sold "The Dealer's Hands" to them. Feels like only yesterday! It also seems I didn't have a beard back then as well. Strange...

Sick, blogs, and a rewrite

Being sick is no fun, especially when there's no good TV marathons on. Hum-bug. Anyways, SF Signal has a neat section of their web site devoted to sf/f writers that blog. Check it out. And, uh, why didn't I know that Paolo Baciqalupi blogs? Sheesh. I feel so out of it now...

Got a rejection and rewrite request today as well. Going to ponder the rewrite as the story will need an entire new ending, which, for me, is the hardest part. Give me some time, folks, give me some time.

My bibliography

Seeing a recent Scalzi entry, I got the idea to do something similar as well. Here's where I'll keep my bibliography information, update it when the timing says so, and link to it from right over there (--->). Well, no, not there. That's my face. Go a little lower. Mm. Past the comics. See it? Go past the book covers. Huh? See it? Ah, bunch of blind ol' bats.

Fiction

• "The Dealer's Hands" - Shimmer (Volume 1, Issue 3, Spring 2006)
• "Always Greener" - Shimmer (Volume 1, Issue 4, Summer 2006)
• "Sick Day" - Flashshot, Year 3
• "Daily Happenings" - Flashshot, Year 3
• "Blood Hungry" - The Horror Library (April 2006)
• "With the Dead, Change is Inevitable" - Dead Letters, 2.2
• "Chance on Catella" - AlienSkin Magazine (June/July 2006)
• "Curling Tendrils of Love" - Second-place winner in the Red Light District/Apex contest for June/July, published in Apex Online
  
• "To Make a Friend" - Dark Jesters, #1
• "Night Fairies" - AlienSkin Magazine (August/September 2006)
• "Never Order the Midnight Special" - Back Roads, #1
• "The Feet Eaters" - Aberrant Dreams (January 2007)
• "Sonorous" - Apex Digest, #9
• "Love Under the Lake" - forthcoming in The Blue Lady, #2
• "67442" - Murky Depths, #1
• "Birds, Gods, and the Naming of Things" - Strange Stories of Sand and Sea anthology (March 2008)
• "Something" - Black Box e-anthology (March 2008)
• "Ash Fish" - forthcoming in SALT: A Surfrider's Benefit Anthology
• "The Sport of Kings" - Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic (November 2007)
• "She's a Hearth" - forthcoming in Kaleidotrope (April 2008)
• "After Effects" - Aoife's Kiss #24 (March 2008)
• "So Go the Seasons" - forthcoming in Black Gate
• "Pigment" - forthcoming in Farrago's Wainscot
• "Imaginary Puissance" - forthcoming in Fictitious Force
• “Nonsense” - forthcoming in Aoife’s Kiss
• “The Hermit” - Behind the Wainscot (Issue #15)
• “Obmutescence” - forthcoming in Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy (2009)

Nonfiction

• "The Spear Carrier" by A.M. Dellamonica: An Appreciation - The ED SF Project
• SF by Starlight: "En Forêt Noire" by Tanith Lee
• Interview by Danny Semmel (02/01/06) - Epic SFF
• Short fiction reviews of magazines such as The Sword Review, Amazing Journeys, Shimmer, Shadowed Realms, Farthing, and more can be read at Tangent Online, along with several anthology/collection reviews
• Numerous book reviews can be found at FantasyBookSpot
• New York ComicCon 2007 writeup

300 Seconds of 300

MTV's showing 300 seconds of Frank Miller's 300, and whew, is it intense. Like Sin City, it's violently stylish. Unlike Sin City, there wasn't a prostitute for 300 seconds. That must be some kind of record for Miller and team! I wonder if this is how it opens or if there's some backstory missing so far. Either way, check it out. At least for the wall of slaughtered Persians' sake.

Breaking news

Justina Robson, author of the awesomely musicpunk Keeping It Real, plus lots of other books, has a new blog over at LiveJournal. Definitely check it out. Her first post is about elves and elitism. Seriously. Go. Now.

Death: Leigh Eddings

According to Locus, SF author Leigh Eddings, wife of David Eddings and co-author of many of his books, most recently The Younger Gods (Voyager, Warner) died last Wednesday, February 28, 2007, after a series of strokes.

---

Even though I didn't enjoy her books, this is a shame. The Eddings have not been having a good couple of past months.

Farthing review!

Check out my review of Farthing, Issue 5!

In other news, I received Ian McDonald's Brasyl in the mail the other day and am currently trying to figure out my reading schedule. This'll probably come up next after George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords, which kind of irks me as I'd really like to tackle the sequel to Victoria Strauss' The Burning Land next. But since I only have The Awakened City in hardback and will be traveling down the line, that's a bookworm no-no (well, at least it is to me).

Lastly, the funniest/cruelest thing I've seen in some time:

Off the cuff

Ron Moore and company can go frak themselves dumb. Frakking double frak.

Free tools!

While perusing Wikipedia, as I'm subject to do from time to time to time to time to time, I came across Syne Mitchell's web site, which, besides having authorly things on it, has some free Javascript tools that a lot of writers might like to take advantage of. One of them is a virtual post scale and the other a response time calculator. I track my submission responses in my Excel spreadsheet, but for those days when I don't feel like going to the post office the virtual post scale might just hit the spot.

Anyways, check 'em out!

Some first sentences

Well, all the cool kids are doing it. Without further ado, the first sentences of five works-in-progress:

• The morning Robbie left for Etchton, two sea-blue sparrows fell from the sky, landing as hard as rocks on our front lawn. (from "The Two Birds")
• "I’m a star destroyer," Tommy whispered to the kid next to him scraping a plastic shovel down across a heap of sparkling sand. (from "Magus Again")
• Greg's summer bonfire, despite the rumors of our generation, received a small turnout, all of whom were connected to one another by nothing other than hemp jewelry and owed hits. (from "Firefoot")
• Yellow moonlight washed the Seventh Steppe Tavern in a pale skin, but only enough so to keep the firewolves at bay. (from "Casmarr and the Night Deeds")
• We knew something was wrong when our dogs started throwing up rocks. (from "The Moment I Met Them")

Con report!

My con report of NY ComicCon 2007 is now live and breathing.

In lieu of any actual news, here's my monster name or whatever. At least now I no longer have to blame my Italian heritage on me being hairy. I'm a frakking abomination, people. Can't you just deal with that?

Get Your Monster Name

Back with a review

Back from NY ComicCon. Still recovering from the awesomeness...



For now, check out my review of Justina Robson's Keeping It Real!

Going to ComicCon!

Well, "The Morning Gift" is on hold for now while I figure out what I'm even trying to do with the thing. I've got my characters and I've got my history in there, but the plot is fuzzy and unfocused. Also, I'll be attending ComicCon tomorrow in New York, which means I'll probably be mentally exhausted for the remainder of the weekend. But yay, ComicCon! The guest list is insane and if I meet even just 2% of the people I want to meet I will be quite pleased with the experience.

As usual, I have lots of things I need to do. What's that sound? Is it bullets lining up and indenting themselves? Why, yes! It is! Time for a to-do-list.

Things To Do Soon or My Head Will Splode:

• Review Farthing, Issue 5 for Tangent
• Review Justina Robson's Keeping It Real
• Ink next week's MyLifeComics
• Actually draw the next Greenhorn because I've run out of inventory
• Continue work on a shhhhhhhhhhh secret project that I can't talk about yet
• Finish reading chapters of a friend's latest novel
• Sleep

This past week I finished two stories, rewrote another one, reviewed galleys for "Sonorous" for Apex Digest #9, and managed to find time for some Rogue Galaxy. I think if my head does explode, it's at least warranted.

Progress notes for February 20, 2007

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 605
Total Words: 2,083
Pages: 7
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: Tired. Got most of the plot figured out, but I know already that I'm going to have to go back and flesh out a lot of backstory. Ugh.
Stimulants: Two cups of coffee with hazelnut creamer
Songs played loudly: "Bend and Not Break" by Dashboard Confessional, "Stuck in a Moment" by Mika
Mail: Couple rejections yesterday, got Farthing #5 today.
Darling du Jour: They all blur as one, he'd said one morning to her and the others. That's when he made Erlon One-Eye. And No-Nose. Halfears. He'd done worse things as well.
Other writing-related work: Jotting things down for a review of Justina Robson's Keeping It Real.
The Internet is full of Things: The Barenaked Ladies' latest video for "Sound of Your Voice" might have cost the band only $3.45 to make, but that's cause they're some smart Canadians. Check it out!

Sea sale

"Birds, Gods, and the Naming of Things" has sold to the Strange Stories of Sand and Sea anthology forthcoming from Fine Tooth Press in 2007. Very pleased about this one.

Oh, and happy Presidents' Day!

Good ol' Weird NJ

Just stumbled across this. Yeah, that first guy you see driving that crazy car (Hoop) is actually just down the road from me. Well, his cars are at least. I haven't seen him, but those cars are hard to miss. Gotta love good ol' weird New Jersey.

Progress notes for February 18, 2007

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 559
Total Words: 1,478
Pages: 4 and a half
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: Kind of stuck on the entire plot. Need to think it out.
Stimulants: Green tea with honey.
Songs played loudly: "Stay Happy" by Joe Wilson, "Devotion and Desire" by Bayside
Mail: Nomail
Darling du Jour: Farinne set her eyes. "The Sisters are still beddable."
The caretaker scrunched her face. "And what lord would want a dead wife?"
Other writing-related work: Wrote up a new bio for Apex #9.
The Internet is full of Things: How is Britney Spears going bald news? HOW?

Bram Stoker 2006 Award noms

It seems that the Bram Stoker Award nominations for works published in 2006 have been announced. Let's see what they've come up with...

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL
+ Headstone City by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
+ Lisey's Story by Stephen King (Scribner)
+ Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
+ Pressure by Jeff Strand (Earthling)
+ Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL
+ Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
+ The Keeper by Sarah Langan (William Morrow)
+ Bloodstone by Nate Kenyon (Five Star)
+ The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff (St. Martins)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION
+ Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)
+ Hallucigenia by Laird Barron (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
+ Mama's Boy by Fran Friel (Insidious Reflections)
+ Bloodstained Oz by Christopher Golden and James A. Moore (Earthling Publications)
+ Clubland Heroes by Kim Newman (Retro Pub Tales)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION
+ Tested by Lisa Morton (Cemetery Dance)
+ Balance by Gene ONeill (Cemetery Dance)
+ Feeding the Dead Inside by Yvonne Navarro (Mondo Zombie)
+ FYI by Mort Castle (Masques V)
+ 31/10 by Stephen Volk (Dark Corners)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY
+ Aegri Somnia: The Apex Featured Writer Anthology
edited by Jason Sizemore (Apex)
+ Mondo Zombie edited by John Skipp (Cemetery Dance)
+ Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe Lansdale (Subterranean)
+ Alone on the Darkside edited by John Pelan (Roc)

Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION
+ Destinations Unknown by Gary Braunbeck (Cemetery Dance)
+ American Morons by Glen Hirshberg (Earthling Publications)
+ The Commandments by Angeline Hawkes (Nocturne Press)
+ The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)
+ Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear by Terry Dowling (Cemetery Dance)
+ Cinema Macabre edited by Frank Morris (PS Publishing)

Superior Achievement in NONFICTION
+ Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo (Harper)
+ Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Vision of Hell on Earth by Kim Paffenroth (Baylor Press)
+ Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished by Rocky Wood (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in POETRY
+ Shades Fantastic by Bruce Boston (Gromagon Press)
+ Valentine: Short Love Poems by Corrine de Winter (Black Arrow Press)
+ The Troublesome Amputee by John Edward Lawson (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
+ Songs of a Sorceress by Bobbi Sinha-Morey (Write Words, Inc.)

Progress notes for February 16, 2007

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 402
Total Words: 919
Pages: 2
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: New bottle of wine beckons!
Stimulants: Absolutely nothin'.
Songs played loudly: "Just Take the Money and Leave" by Inkwell
Mail: A 3-day "some nice touches, but we'll have to pass" from the VanderMeer anthology. Also, Eugie's sending me Farthing's fifth issue to review.
Darling du Jour: "I should've burned your throats off," Lord Senli said. "Or sewn your lips together. Either would have pleased Halu Haekamel."
Other writing-related work: Nada.
The Internet is full of Things: Woman Allegedly Ties Up Valentine, Drinks His Blood. Sucks when your Valentine is a vampire, huh?

Progress notes for February 15, 2007

Working on a new story so until it's finished y'all get to enjoy some progress notes.

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 517
Total Words: 517
Pages: 1 and a half
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: Tired, need to figure plot out
Stimulants: Coffee! Also, carrots?
Songs played loudly: "Sleepers" by Saosin, "Wake the Dead" by Comeback Kid
Mail: A second notice from ASIM that my submission has made it to the final round. Now comes the long wait...
Darling du Jour: The Sisters mocked Farinne as she worked: "We heard, we heard! Fivefinger Farry and One-Eye, what a couple they'll be! Think getting married'll make them each whole. Ignorant oafs."
Other writing-related work: Scribbled down some ideas for a freelance gig
The Internet is full of Things: Did anyone else notice Google's Valentine's Day logo yesterday? Googe?

Thud!

Originally, I was going to write up a real review for Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel Thud! when the thought crossed my mind: Why bother? If you, like me, are a fanatic for all things Discworld than you've bought the book already and have also read it (maybe twice). That's just the rule for us. New Discworld novel comes out, we go buy it. Sort of a cause-and-effect thing, eh? If you don't like Pratchett's humor, wit, or style, you're probably in a state of comatose and a review glorifying the man's words won't do a thing to change your mind. In short, you need medicine.

And Thud! is a great entry in the +30 series, possibly because it's a City Watch adventure. The narrative is led by none other than Sam Vimes, with a couple other Watchmen filling out the scenes (Nobby Nobbs, Captain Carrot, and Angua, my werewolf heroine, play vital roles within). The plot revolves around a murdered dwarf and the age-old drama that exists between trolls and the little bearded half-pints. It's up to Vimes to figure out who killed the dwarf before a terrible war is recreated right in the middle of Ankh-Morpork. The satire is spot on, as are the new characters popping up left and right. There's mystery and humor, even pole dancing. But really, I don't need to say anything else. You probably know all this already, right? You're not a brain-dead tomato stuck in a bed. You're smarter than that. You're a fan.

And now I must sit and wait for Making Money to come out.

Fourth season!

Well, this came as no frakking surprise, but the SCI FI Channel just picked up Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season. So long as Boomer (multiple Boomers!) is still around, all is well in the world.

Miscellaneous shtuff...

Got Justina Robson's Keeping It Real in the mail today.

I've finally gotten around to finishing a story, which is now going through a second reading and a quick set of line edits and then it's poof out into the real world with it. These things grow up so fast.

"Hold notice" from Andromeda Spaceway Inflight Magazine on a story of mine, letting me know it's made it through the first round.

And to round out this lovely little bit of randomness, here's a sketch of an armless monster on a Post-It, inspired by the work of Stefan G. Bucher's Daily Monster:

Chocolate comic

Thanks to Drawn! I found out about a new web comic which focuses on writing (well, a freelance writer, at least): Will Write for Chocolate by Debbie Ridpath Ohi. She's got some funny things to say about the blogosphere as well. And this doesn't appear to be the only comic she does. Anyways, check it out!

My title would've been Will Write for Sushi, but that's just me...

Comments are a go

Wow, I just realized that folks can now comment on MyLifeComics. This seems to be a new function of the site; at least I don't remember it being there a few days ago. I generally don't ever go back to look at the comics after posting, but now I finally have a reason to. The voice of the public shall be heard! Praise me, please!

New SF review!

Check out my review for The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction edited by George Mann!



From the FBS Quick Take:
Solaris Book of New Science Fiction is the inaugural anthology for the Solaris imprint from BL Publishing, containing exemplary stories both profound and emotionally captivating that are sure to get any science fiction fan excited.

It was a dark and stormy night

I completely forgot that I wanted to post about this...

Back in January, Jason Sizemore, editor and supreme being who makes old ladies cry at fast food joints, posted the artwork that will be used for issue nine of Apex Digest. Since my piece of flash fiction "Sonorous" will be in this issue, let me just say that I'm ecstatic over the artwork, almost to the point of drooling. Can't wait to see the final mockup...

This is a post about LOST

I only religiously watch three television shows: Battlestar Galactica, LOST, and The Office. One is window clear science fiction laden with drama, another merely a cast of dramatic characters in a real-world setting with science fictional things happening this way and that, which are supposed to be ignored or dismissed blindly, and the other is just damned funny.

Two of them I'm very happy with. Unfortunately, LOST has been more and more disappointing as each episode unfolds slowly and without resolution. I was very happy to hear that the execs are closing the show down at episode 100, which at least means the bloated beast will finally sink at some point, but until then it's just going to be irritating and in your face. LOST! Watch it tonight! People will shoot guns, and hey, yaneverknowwhomightgetshot (pan to .005 second shot of Sawyer maybe getting shot; this is in every episode preview).

I'd seriously forgotten about the show during its couple month hiatus, and don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's back on and I now have something to watch on Wednesday nights, but it keeps straying away from the characters that matter and making others nothing more that stiff stereotypes. So Michael kills two people and is allowed to leave the island, but the truly nice people who have just had unfortunate lives are stuck to suffer, linger, and make pouty faces? The producers of the show promise answers. Unfortunately, to get to those answers, everyone'll have to wade through the Ocean of What The Fucks, shivering at its surprising chill all while murmuring "What the fuck?" at every. thing. that. happens.

Can you tell that tonight's episode reminded me of why I can't stand LOST and yet at the same time I will watch it, watch it, and watch it until my eyes are dry enough to crack.

What the fuck?

Map!

I can't claim to understand what this whole map excitement is about, but all the cool kids are doing it. I'm hoping to discover that I have a huge fan base in Japan...



Create your own visitor map!

Latest purchase

I did really well yesterday at the bookstore and only bought one book, George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords. Generally I buy three to four books at a time, but I have such a backlog at home already that I buckled down and purchased the only book that needed purchasing. I finished A Clash of Kings a few days back and knew that I just had to get the next book in the series ASAP or else I'd go crazy. And this one is even larger than the previous one! I have a couple other books I'm trying to get through before I return to Westeros though, specifically some Pratchett, Strauss, and Vance.

London, Un Lun Dun

China Mieville takes a moment to talk about his upcoming YA debut Un Lun Dun (which now I figured out what the blazes the title means). I'm definitely interested in seeing how this all turns out.

But for now I must get back to writing about space pirates, robots, and candy.

Tis official

The big news of the day:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be officially out on July 21, 2007 at 12:01 a.m., making the book's debut a couple weeks after the release of the fifth film in the series. I was pretty much surprised to hear this, and considering we only just learned of the title a short whiles back I wasn't expecting to learn anything else for some time. Actually, I wasn't even expecting the book to be out this year. I guess I was under the suspicion that Rowling was still writing it, but I guess she's closer to done than we all thought. I just hope the final product wasn't rushed simply to align itself with better marketing opportunities. And pretty soon the movies are all we're going to have to look forward to...

I also hope that Rowling doesn't give Hagrid the axe, but that's a whole different sort of post that I'll save for later. The Keeper of the Keys and Grounds is my hero!

Locus Recommended Reading 2006

Happy February!

Though this is being linked to by every blogger this side of Sunday, I'll also point folks in the direction of Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading for 2006. Lots of good books and short fiction listed there. I do wish though that small press markets could be even looked at, but it's a dog-eat-dog world and sadly they are left on the side of the road, panting heavily as cars drive on by. There are times that I think some stories from Farthing or Apex Digest or Abyss and Apex are far more illuminating than those printed in the Big Three.

And that's the end of me complaining over this matter.

My Elves Are Different

Steve Wilson, a fellow cohort from FantasyBookSpot, is doing some spec-fic related comic strips lightly titled My Elves Are Different. The artwork is what it is, but the writing is sharp and full of personality, which is what matters most. And they're fun, so check them out!

Looks like Greenhorn has some competition...

Inkheart buzz

I've been quietly watching the theatrical development of Cornelia Funke's Inkheart with sincere interest. Unfortunately, I can't stand it when characters are simply changed so that an audience can grasp who they are quicker. Andy Serkis, who takes the lead villian of Capricorn, the man with a heart so black it might as well be full of ink, chats a bit about how the character has changed. I don't know. Personally, I don't believe Serkis has the stage presence to make a captivating villain (unless, of course, he's gone through seven hours of makeup or is a giant gorilla or whatever else he's been before when he's not himself, you know).

And Brendan Fraser as Mo? Ugh. No, no, no. I don't care that Funke fell in love with his voice, Fraser should not be Mo. No, no, nonononononononoonno. I can totally see Fraser mucking up the role and playing it a bit too campy for me.

The film is slated for a London release in 2008. I wonder if it'll make its way over here to the States...

Harry Potter and the Nudity that Scared Me

No, that's not the title of the secret eighth book. It pertains to the fact that 17-year-old Daniel Radcliffe has taken his career in a slightly different direction. He plays a demanding role in Peter Shaffer's controversial play Equus, which has something to do with sex and horses, I guess. Or maybe just horses. ::shrugs::



If you thought HP slash fanfic was out of hand before, just wait until the whole cast is dancing nude in stables and casting levitation spells on bails of hay and drinking spiced apple cider and polyjuice potions and turning into horses themselves. Oh, it's going to get sickeningly interesting very soon. Luckily for me, I never really cared for how Radcliffe portrays Harry, thus, his representation of the character is no more ruined than it was prior to the above horse/sex photos.

Un Lun Dun contest

That's right. Jay from FBS is hosting a contest to win an autographed copy of Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. This is China's skip into the world of young adults, but I still foresee the tale being ever as engaging and horrific as Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Plus, I think China did some artwork for the book.

And it's fairly easy to win. Click the link above, sign up for the forums, private message Jay, and boom...you're in the drawing. Good luck to everyone, even though now you're mostly my competition.

Oh, and there are two contests being hosted by Brian for The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski and 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers by Troy Cook, but those are mystery novels and I care not for them. I think I've read a total of three mystery novels before in my life. And none of them were Sherlock Holmes...

It's a wikiworld afterall

Paul Di Filippo's "Wikiworld" from Lou Anders' Fast Forward 1 anthology (which I reviewed a few posts down) is now available to read for free online. So check it out; it's a fun one, but also a bit scary seeing how it's a future that might just one day come to be.

Some movies

I've watched some movies lately thanks to some post-holiday gift card usage. One I really liked, one I liked but didn't get, and one was pretty stupid but filled with things I like yet I still didn't really like it at all.

Slither is a light-hearted monster flick, with alien lifeforms dropping onto the planet via a chunk of meotorite. From there they take a semi-bad husband's body hostage, using him to procreate little alien slugs. The film rarely takes itself seriously, but one thing it does take is itself and its gross-out gore to the edge. Which I loved. And though there's some usage of heavy CGI, the filmmakers went the smart route and kept things classic. The Grant monster, by the end of the movie, is such a piece of marvelous work that I found it hard to look away from such an ugly thing. It's very high on the creepy factor, but again, it's not a scary flick. And yes, I'm a Nathan Fillion fanboy, but there's a lot of other great people in Slither. Namely Elizabeth Banks and Tania Saulnier.

I'd been told over and over that I should see Night Watch, that it was a film I'd really enjoy. Guess what? It is. It's that classic tale of light versus dark, literally. There's the Day Watch and the Night Watch, vampires and shape-shifting guardians. Evil voodoo. The gloom. Things of that nature. Plus, a stupid boy who is clearly more than he appears to be. Visually, the movie is gorgeous. I really wished there had been more parts from the past because it looked like such a world of grim epic fantasy that, for a moment, my heart lifted and all was right in the world. Unfortunately, I watched it without the subtitles (I know, Night Watch sin!!!) so I was both confused and a little put off by the dubbing. So I liked it, and will watch it again, hopefully figuring out some of the things I did not get. But come on folks, a guy pulled his spine out to use it as a sword. It doesn't get any better than that.

And lastly, we have Feast, a Project Greenlight product. The premise is quite simple: a miscellaneous scraggle of strangers are trapped in a dive bar as hungry monsters try to eat them all mean like. And that's it. Characters in the film are one-shotted via pause-the-film techniques which lead to bio sheets. Kind of lazy. Also misleading, which I guess was the point. Like Slither, Feast doesn't take itself seriously. But unlike Slither, Feast is a bad movie. There's little room for acting besides screaming and dying. The gore is over-the-top, as is expected, but I just didn't find most of it believable. Or enjoyable. Characters come and go, and it wasn't until 3/4s of the way through that we're shown who exactly we should be voting for. I wanted Jay (snoochie-boochies) to save the day. Alas, he kicked it pretty early. Don't worry, nothing I write here will ruin the movie. And don't get me wrong, I love monster flicks (see Slither; gawd, I really do love that film), but these monsters were pointlessly absurd. No explanation, not even half an attempt to give them some sort of cause for being. Sure, we're told why they're angry, but not why they live. To its credit, Feast does have some good commentary to listen to, which is much better than actually listening to the film's dialogue. In the end, I'm just glad this one came packaged for free with Slither. Ah...Slither...swoons eternally...

A new story in progress

I'm currently reworking a piece of flash fiction that I wrote a few months ago. I wrote it, submitted it once, and quickly forgot about it. Opening the file tonight, I was surprised to find some stuff in it that I really liked. Anyways, it was written in present tense (why, gods, why?), which I'm not happy with. So I'm changing tenses and trying to lengthen it to at least a decent short story.

So here's a current word count for all y'all:

"The Field Once Battled"

( ######======= )
869 / 2,000 : 43.5%

Why won't Blogger let me post a decent-looking Zokutou Word Meter? Snarls.

Hope to finish it up over the next few days. I'd love to finish a new story and start submitting it. It feels like all I've been doing lately is submitting all my old stories, which are beginning to either feel dated or just trunk-able to me. Oh well. Onwards...

Forwarding review!

Check out my review for Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge edited by Lou Anders here!

Taken from the FBS Quick Take:
Fast Forward I is a great anthology, filled with numerous and diverse stories and is bound to please any fan of science fiction.

And this bit of news has been all over the blogosphere today: HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. This is pretty cool and might possibly be the only reason I'd ever order HBO for myself. The show is probably a long ways off (as is the rest of the series, which Martin hopes to finish by 2011) so no need to start planning out casting roles right now...but still...epic fantasy that might be done well. On television! Eee!

Of course, nothing will ever meet my own imagination for how I perceive Arya, Jon Snow, Theon, Davos, The Hound, and so on...

Love, hate, just talk it out

It seems my latest comic over at Greenhorn has stirred up some heated discussion, most of which can be seen in the accompanying FBS thread here. I probably came across a little too harsh in the comments below the comic, but such is life. I'm just glad to see folks talking, you know.

Here's an update

All right, I've set up a site at Webcomicsnation for my journal comics, magically named MyLifeComics. I'll be reposting the comics on LiveJournal in case anyone wants to comment on them. The username is mylifecomics; feel free to add me and tell your friends. Unless they're old cause I make fun of old people a lot.

Stopped at my favorite bookstore yesterday and picked up a couple books:

• Jack Vance - Star King
• Jack Vance - The Killing Machine
• Jack Vance - The Palace of Love
• Robert Silverberg, editor - The New Atlantic and Other Novellas of Science Fiction by Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, and James Tiptree, Jr.
  

I also got The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction in the mail yesterday. Seems pretty good with a strong TOC to it. That'll probably be next on my review list after I finish up Fast Forward I. This should keep me busy for some time, I'd say.

Changes in the air

There are going to be some changes soon with the journal comic. Trust me, they're for the better. Stay tuned for further details...

Also, I just realized I colored the wires for my iPod Shuffle black when everyone and their mother certainly knows that they should be white. I'd like to take a mulligan, please.

Finished Inkspell

Well, I finished reading Inkspell by Cornelia Funke. Overall, it was decent but the whole time I was reading I kept thinking that there was just too many unneeded details and characters. The book was longer than it needed to be, and considering the sudden and incomplete ending, annoying in retrospect. There's some good bits, mainly involving Dustfinger and Farid, and a couple scenes that reminded me why I loved Inkheart so much. Though I liked the juxtaposition of everyone entering the book in Inkspell (instead of those living outside the book in Inkheart), I was just hoping for something more. But who am I kidding, I'll read the third book whenever it comes out.

Nebula thoughts

Swing-and-a-miss.

Seems the 2006 Preliminary Nebula Award Ballot is up and breathing. Scanning through, I see only a few things that I've actually read, which makes choosing my top choices rather forced. From the novels category I've only read Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain, which I really enjoyed a lot. Haven't read any of the novellas up, but I have enjoyed Paul Melko's work before. Novelettes...hmm...it's a tie between "Journey into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert and Peter S. Beagle's "Two Hearts." For short stories, my silent vote has to go to "Pip and the Fairies" by Theodora Goss, a wonderful (and quite sad) fairytale-like adventure set in modern times where the media gets involved. And I personally don't give a hopping hoot about movie scripts, no matter how amazing they can be at times. So there you have it, for now at least.

Twas a lovely day

Though right now it's pretty cold out. I'm really fearing February since that's usually the worst of the cold months. Good thing I got a new pair of gloves for Christmas. Cause otherwise, what's the point?

New layout

Well, it's a new year...so I've decided to try out a new layout for Wistful Writings.

This is a work in progress as I figure out how to use Blogger's customization tools. Stay tuned for changes...

Nice doggie...

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Things I need to do (I'm OCDDDDDDD, I make to-do-lists just to stay busyyyyyyy):

• Finish the other three parts for the upcoming Greenhorn series
• Review Fast Forward I
• See Children of Men
• Beat Suikoden V, even if it means not collecting every single character
• Laundry
• Possibly re-organize my bookshelves

Now, isn't all that exciting?

Comic and some thoughts

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I finished several books as of late. In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck is of standard fair for epic fantasy sorts, a young squire named Durand getting involved in a plot of treason and fighting for the Lord Lamoric, a man who is far more interesting than those around them. So there's a lot of knights galloping on horses, several jousting tournaments, and the occasional monster. The magic of the land is kept in the background, which I did not like. The writing was good except I kept stumbling upon several similes that were 100% jarring; hopefully by his next novel Keck will have improved because I did find some aspects of In the Eye of Heaven interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more from him.

Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee are two books set in the utopian world of Four BEE. Yes, Four Bee. It's a strange world where everything is splendid, the youthful Jang can suicide daily to change bodies and body types, and the idea of God is obsolete. But one person decides she no longer wants to be Jang, seperates herself from her circle, attempts to make a child, and then becomes exiled to the desert. Lee's writing, here at its earliest, is simply compelling. She has such a handle on her characters and the story never strays too far from its absurdity. Characters come and go as different sexes, and through it all everyone remains clear. I definitely recommend the series for those that like their science fiction pulpy, fast-paced, and lush with alien ideas.

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin is set on the planet Athshe where a once-paradise is being conquered by humans. The forests are being cut down, the land cleared all over, but the Athsheans have had enough. Long thought to be docile, they attack the humans. The book sort of made me think of a deranged version of the Ewoks on Endor, where the little fuzzy creatures went rabid with rage, killing all in their path. I've always been a fan of Le Guin's work, and this is another piece of her genius: a battle between man and nature, where those working for the trees are able to fight through lucid dreaming. If you have the time, it's a short book and well worth the read.

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It seems I forgot to post a link to my review for Eragon, which was an absolutely horrible film on a hundred different levels. Right now though, Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth are looking amazing. I'm still having trouble finding a theatre that's playing Pan's Labyrinth around here. Ugh. Why is that the artsy films get no love but Night at the Museum is playing everywhere, ten times a day, over and over and over again? Tell me now, brown cow.

I got mad

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Don't hate/honk at me just because I don't have EZ Pass/the change for the toll in my hand the instant I come to a stop. Sheesh, peoples.

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

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And yet I never watched a single airing of A Christmas Story over the holidays. I long for the day when Elf becomes the classic Christmas movie. Really, I do.

Tree time

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Al doesn't speak too much English.

"The Feet Eaters"

My story "The Feet Eaters" has just gone live over at Aberrant Dreams.

Check it out!

I guess I was sleepy

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Did some sketching over the holiday break. So expect to see some comics over the next few days...