I love the fact that...

...here in Colorado, just last week we had blizzard conditions blanket the city. Then it got all sun-shiney on us for the next couple days and melted almost all of it away. Then we wake up yesterday morning to it slipping another inch or two of snow in before getting sunny again today. Tomorrow? More snow predicted. It's about time winter actually started acting and feeling like winter. Woo!

I see that smile.

How much time did this take?

Bit of a switch

I'm not sure if there's an exception out there (and if so, let me know), but every time a book is made in to a film, anyone who has read the book and seen the film inevitably says, "The book was better."

It seems somewhat par for course now that whenever a film comes out, it is often novelized to boost sales. So if the movie comes first, does that mean it would be better than the book? Or is it a case that the original artistic vision, whatever the medium, remains the better offering?

For your viewing pleasure, here are 10 movies that would make awesome SF novels.

One instance I already know of this conversion is actually a BBC television series that was later written into a book--and the book was still better! I'm talking about Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, which first ran as a six-part series. I watched and read both versions, and I would say that while the show is entertaining and fun, the book leaves so much more room for imagination and little details that can't quite be captured in a film format. 

A few of the movies on the list include: The Fountain, Primer, and Twelve Monkeys. Take a look at the other offerings and see if you would agree. Are there any movies you think should be added? And finally, the all-important question: If a story is presented in film format to begin with, is anyone going to take the time to follow-up and actually read a book version to compare the two? It seems that it is more the book-loyalist camp that has already gone through the text who feel it is vital to hold a film translation up to the original piece to see how much the movie director got wrong. Whaddya think?

I see that smile.

Cell phone novels?

Since I'm one to hate texting--not because I'm a luddite in any sense...I just suck at it--I'm pretty sure I won't be catching on to this new fad. 

Cell phone novels

Use your phone to write a novel or short story, then upload it and sell. Perhaps get it converted to paperback and into stores. While this seems to be a Japanese phenomenon at the moment, no doubt there are people doing it here in the U.S. as I type. 

And, of course, you have the dissenters:

Some literary purist don't think the cell phone novels constitute real literature, but their popularity is undeniable.

Question is, does it really matter how a story is typed/written to define it as literature or not? I understand some people's qualms about stories written entirely in chat lingo (btw, omg, roftl), but if someone composes a good story with their Blackberry instead of a typewriter, isn't it still a story? And would you put in the effort to write a manuscript entirely with your thumbs?

I see that smile.

Are you kidding?

If you haven't heard, the Sci Fi channel has decided to rebrand itself as the Syfy channel. 

...

Ok. Really? The Syfy channel? I mean...really? 

Their reasoning, you ask?

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network.

Should I be insulted? Should the audience be insulted? Should people who actually enjoy science fiction be insulted that their demographic is still viewed in such a narrow-minded way? 

Yeesh. 

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are 25 other names they could have used (warning, language):

http://io9.com/5172449/25-other-names-the-sci-fi-channel-could-rebrand-with

I see that smyl.

Crackpot or Visionary?

The film appears to touch on a lot of topics that could be taken straight out of an array of sci-fi classics: artificial intelligence, cyborgs, medical immortality...even, resurrection? While I'm fascinated by the concepts, I do have to wonder if he's got some workable ideas to go off of or if this guy is just using futuristic hype to sell himself.

Of course, it's kinda hard to tell the difference based on 3 minutes of sound bytes and narration. Is he worth researching? Anyone read his book(s) and have an opinion?

I see that smile.

World Builder Video

Many thanks to Nathan Bransford for posting this video, which is a wickedly imaginative and strangely affecting short film called World Builder. He says it communicates some of what it's like to be a writer, and I whole-heartedly agree. Give it a watch. You won't regret it.



World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

I see that smile.

Confident or Delusional?

Running the wife to the airport this morning, so let me direct you to this thoughtful and fun link. Hat tips to both Colleen Lindsay and Nathan Bransford for bringing this article to my attention.

Confident or Delusional?

And yes, this does have to do with your writing style and habits. In essence, are you confident enough in the progression of your abilities to allow room for improvement? Can you handle negative feedback in a constructive way? And do you see each story you write as a step up, rather than the ultimate summit? 

Or are you delusional in thinking every word you write is perfect? That all those agents and editors who have rejected you belong in straightjackets? That anything less than effusive praise doesn't deserve to reach your ears? 

The article doesn't quite provide a box-check test for one side of the spectrum or the other, but it does list a number of insightful qualities thought you can probably see mirrored in yourself one way or the other. Take a gander and then...well, get back to writing. Hopefully with a better perspective.

Here are a few examples:

Confident writers get published.
Delusional writers don't get published very often, and if they do it's not for very long.

Confident writers know they'll be published, if they keep at it.
Delusion writers think they'll be rich and famous.

Confident writers work to get the words right.
Delusional writers think they got the words right the first time.

I see that smile.

Who could pass this job up?

I see that smile

For your haiku pleasure

Here are the results of Colleen Lindsay's query haiku contest!

The Winning Query:

Cross-dressing rent boy
wants man to love and girl's voice
in head to shut up.
(tcastleb)

Honorable Mentions:

Geek boy, surfer girl
Cosmic Freaky Friday tale
Nightmares turn to dreams
(laura)

Girl turns into frog
Must kiss princess to transform
Dissection is near
(teennovelist)

Sole teen character
Desolate wild Alaska
His quest to survive
(pablo)

Chicago mayor
hurts a child, K. breaks the news
mayor wants her dead
(thea miller ryan)

Knights of Roundtable
Reborn as New Jersey teens
Learn past, save future
(melissa)

The Funniest Queries:

Damn it, Jim, I'm a
Novelist not a poet,
Letter I will write.
(dina)

"It's about Love! O-
vercoming all obstacles."
Wait, that's Moulin Rouge.
(anonymous)

Will you buy my book?
It's Epic in Proportion,
Fraught with Great Peril.
(finch)

After near-drowning
Woman gives birth to mermaid
Spouse finds it fishy
(serenissima)

And if you haven't done so already, don't forget to check out the original series of comment submissions for all the rest of the entries. Lots of great haiku queries here. Maybe we should make it an industry trend?

I see that smile.

Pandorum

Pandorum looks like a nice, freaky sci-fi movie with a bunch of twisted personalities and mind games thrown into the mix. 

Whatcha think? Worth a bowl of popcorn or two?

I see that smile.

New science fiction from Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz has another project coming out through the Dabel Brothers. And it sounds like fun. Here's the official description:


Nevermore’s hero is 35-year-old multibillionaire Robert Godric. In a desperate attempt to bring back his wife, Nora, who died at 33 of an aggressive brain cancer, Godric invents cross-time travel and searches for a living Nora on the infinity of parallel Earths. Inadvertently, he and his team encounter an alien hivelike race—the Hydra—that is conquering Earth after Earth after Earth. If the Hydra find our version by following Godric back to it, our civilization will not survive the invasion.







Parallel Earths, billionaires, alien invasions...sounds like a good time. Dean Koontz has always straddled the line between fantasy and science fiction, but with this being an out-and-out sci-fi adventure, it'll be fun to see how he drives the stories and characters forward.


I see that smile.

Well, crap

I know some might not think it a huge deal, what with online readership these days. Heck, even I don't subscribe to a newspaper anymore. But this article about the Rocky Mountain News closing its doors still poked at me.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/27/rocky.mountain/index.html

Not sure why. Maybe it's because this was my hometown paper or some such. Anyone else felt a bit sad at seeing their news shut down? Seems like a herald to the day when we might hear about book publishers shutting their doors because of e-readers. Though I know others who would celebrate those times.

I see that smile.