Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 249
June 30, 2011
Do it Yourself Dangers
My faucet issues seem to have triggered both my independent streak and my curiosity about how things work. I've consulted with friends and watched a few how-to videos on the Home Depot web site, and now I'm starting to think this might be something I could do -- except that my set-up seems to be rather archaic. And that really triggered my curiosity about how things work, so that I'm dying to take it all apart to see. There's a reason most of my tools and all my wrenches have to live in the garage, which isn't attached to my house. That gives me a cool-down waiting period before I can act on those whims to take things apart, especially since those whims tend to come late at night, when I don't want to go outside and cross the courtyard and a driveway to get to the garage to get the tools. I may have to padlock the tool box and hide the key or turn it over to a neighbor because it would be really stupid to take something apart right before a holiday weekend when I wouldn't be able to get a professional to come set everything right in case I can't fix it or put it back together again on my own.
This is something I'd really like to learn to do on my own, and not just out of frugality. I like knowing how to do useful stuff. Being able to replace a faucet would definitely fall into the category of life skills. I also don't like dealing with the hassle of calling a plumber. It would probably take me less time to do it myself than it would take to call someone, set an appointment, then wait for the plumber to actually show up. I've taken photos of the set-up with my digital camera, and I may take my camera to Home Depot, and if I can get the attention of an employee without performing a striptease in the aisle (it varies -- sometimes I get great help there, but there are times when I don't think the striptease would even work, when I can be right in front of a group of employees saying, "Excuse me?" repeatedly without them so much as acknowledging my existence) I can find out what I might need and if it's a doable DIY project. It probably needs a bit of an overhaul, and when I ever have money, I have plans to re-do and update the bathroom, but right now all I want is to not have to brush my teeth in the bathtub.
So far, my life skills include driving a stick shift, doing minor toilet repairs, opening champagne bottles, putting together furniture, painting and related tasks and making jam. I can also hang sheetrock and vinyl siding, thanks to Habitat for Humanity. I figured out how the garage door opener mechanism works from a time when it broke, but that required a professional to fix it because those are high-tension springs that require special tools. I did once make a repair when it was just a bolt that had come loose. I've also taken apart my clothes dryer and put it back together again when something fell into the lint filter opening and I had to retrieve it. The sense of achievement from doing something like that on my own is practically a high. I think that's one of the main reasons I like the do-it-yourself route. You don't get the same sense of accomplishment from calling someone to do it for you.
Oh, and I know how to write a book. And I should finish another one today.
This is something I'd really like to learn to do on my own, and not just out of frugality. I like knowing how to do useful stuff. Being able to replace a faucet would definitely fall into the category of life skills. I also don't like dealing with the hassle of calling a plumber. It would probably take me less time to do it myself than it would take to call someone, set an appointment, then wait for the plumber to actually show up. I've taken photos of the set-up with my digital camera, and I may take my camera to Home Depot, and if I can get the attention of an employee without performing a striptease in the aisle (it varies -- sometimes I get great help there, but there are times when I don't think the striptease would even work, when I can be right in front of a group of employees saying, "Excuse me?" repeatedly without them so much as acknowledging my existence) I can find out what I might need and if it's a doable DIY project. It probably needs a bit of an overhaul, and when I ever have money, I have plans to re-do and update the bathroom, but right now all I want is to not have to brush my teeth in the bathtub.
So far, my life skills include driving a stick shift, doing minor toilet repairs, opening champagne bottles, putting together furniture, painting and related tasks and making jam. I can also hang sheetrock and vinyl siding, thanks to Habitat for Humanity. I figured out how the garage door opener mechanism works from a time when it broke, but that required a professional to fix it because those are high-tension springs that require special tools. I did once make a repair when it was just a bolt that had come loose. I've also taken apart my clothes dryer and put it back together again when something fell into the lint filter opening and I had to retrieve it. The sense of achievement from doing something like that on my own is practically a high. I think that's one of the main reasons I like the do-it-yourself route. You don't get the same sense of accomplishment from calling someone to do it for you.
Oh, and I know how to write a book. And I should finish another one today.
June 29, 2011
Conflict: Man vs. the Supernatural
I'm tempted to cancel today due to lack of interest or unforeseen circumstances. I had a very late night last night from going out for dessert with my ballet class -- after staying after ballet to take the jazz class. As a result, I'm tired and bleary-eyed and rather sore (my knees are really mad at me). And then when I got up this morning and went to wash my face, the handle of the bathroom sink faucet broke off in my hand. The plastic had just disintegrated. For the moment, I can still make it work, but it looks like I'll have to get a new faucet and then find a plumber to install it -- which will probably require clearing out the cabinet under the sink. I didn't need this. At least I don't have choir tonight, so I can relax this evening.
I've been talking about some of the forms of conflict in fiction. One of the kinds of conflict is man vs. god, and the reason I want to dig into this one is something one of my English teachers said when teaching this concept. She dismissed the "man vs. god" conflict as something you don't see anymore, that only happened in ancient mythology where the heroes interacted with gods. In the Judeo-Christian mindset, any conflict between man and God looks more like man vs. self because it mostly comes down to an internal struggle, since God doesn't usually fight back when man is angry at Him.
But as a fantasy reader, I thought she was wrong. The gods in mythology behaved a lot like people with superpowers. They had very human motivations like greed, lust and jealousy. But they were different from human characters in that they could do super-human things like change themselves or others into other things, fly, zap people, grant magical gifts, dematerialize and materialize, etc. And that sounded to me a lot like the characters in fantasy novels I read. They may not be called gods (though in some books they are), but they have a lot of the characteristics of the gods in Greek or Norse mythology.
I knew better than to argue with the teacher, but I mentally created my own category of man vs. the supernatural. There's a lot of overlap with man vs. man, since the supernatural characters do still have human motivations, if perhaps on a grander scale. There's just an added element because of that grander scale and because the supernatural character is a lot more difficult to fight. The supernatural abilities may make the character nearly impossible to defeat in a direct fight and may raise the risk level for the hero. I don't think all paranormal characters would fall into this category, though. Most vampires seem to me to fit more into man vs. man because although they have extra strength and are difficult to kill, they can't really do much more to ordinary humans than humans can do and it doesn't take special abilities or qualities to kill them. The supernatural element isn't really part of the conflict. I think that for a conflict to fall into the "man vs. supernatural" category, that supernatural element should be a part of the conflict, not just a complication.
One example that I think fits this is Voldemort in the Harry Potter books. This isn't just a wizard vs. wizard fight. Voldemort has used his powers to break off bits of his soul and implant them in objects, so he can't be completely killed until all of these are destroyed. That means that his physical body can be killed, but he can put himself into another body or create a new body. That's on top of the magical powers, ability to fly and ability to control or influence other people. The heart of the conflict between him and Harry is his desire to use his magical powers to take over the world and subjugate everyone who's non-magical, half-breed or not human. Sounds pretty god-like to me. Meanwhile, I think Harry could still be classified as a "man" rather than as a god because while he has magical powers, that's pretty much just a baseline in his world, and it's his human qualities he uses to fight Voldemort, not his magical powers. The central conflict in the Lord of the Rings is similar -- Sauron has given up his humanity for power, he has a great deal of control over others and has near omniscience, and he's trying to take over the world using his powers. Up against him is the very "human" Frodo, who doesn't really have anything going for him other than tenacity, the ability to mostly resist temptation and the loyalty of his friends.
Now that I think about it, I can't come up with an example of a fantasy story that I think falls into the "man vs. the supernatural" category where the hero doesn't prevail because of his human qualities rather than any magical powers (though that could just reflect my personal reading taste). It seems like the more powerful and non-human a villain becomes, so that he becomes invulnerable to magical attack, the more vulnerable he is to simple human things, so the hero's weakness becomes a great power. In fact, there's a lovely scene in A Wrinkle in Time that I used to read in prose interpretation competitions in high school that's exactly about that, quoting from First Corinthians: "For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." This dynamic makes it possible to create a really powerful villain who's nearly impossible to defeat who can still lose.
I've been talking about some of the forms of conflict in fiction. One of the kinds of conflict is man vs. god, and the reason I want to dig into this one is something one of my English teachers said when teaching this concept. She dismissed the "man vs. god" conflict as something you don't see anymore, that only happened in ancient mythology where the heroes interacted with gods. In the Judeo-Christian mindset, any conflict between man and God looks more like man vs. self because it mostly comes down to an internal struggle, since God doesn't usually fight back when man is angry at Him.
But as a fantasy reader, I thought she was wrong. The gods in mythology behaved a lot like people with superpowers. They had very human motivations like greed, lust and jealousy. But they were different from human characters in that they could do super-human things like change themselves or others into other things, fly, zap people, grant magical gifts, dematerialize and materialize, etc. And that sounded to me a lot like the characters in fantasy novels I read. They may not be called gods (though in some books they are), but they have a lot of the characteristics of the gods in Greek or Norse mythology.
I knew better than to argue with the teacher, but I mentally created my own category of man vs. the supernatural. There's a lot of overlap with man vs. man, since the supernatural characters do still have human motivations, if perhaps on a grander scale. There's just an added element because of that grander scale and because the supernatural character is a lot more difficult to fight. The supernatural abilities may make the character nearly impossible to defeat in a direct fight and may raise the risk level for the hero. I don't think all paranormal characters would fall into this category, though. Most vampires seem to me to fit more into man vs. man because although they have extra strength and are difficult to kill, they can't really do much more to ordinary humans than humans can do and it doesn't take special abilities or qualities to kill them. The supernatural element isn't really part of the conflict. I think that for a conflict to fall into the "man vs. supernatural" category, that supernatural element should be a part of the conflict, not just a complication.
One example that I think fits this is Voldemort in the Harry Potter books. This isn't just a wizard vs. wizard fight. Voldemort has used his powers to break off bits of his soul and implant them in objects, so he can't be completely killed until all of these are destroyed. That means that his physical body can be killed, but he can put himself into another body or create a new body. That's on top of the magical powers, ability to fly and ability to control or influence other people. The heart of the conflict between him and Harry is his desire to use his magical powers to take over the world and subjugate everyone who's non-magical, half-breed or not human. Sounds pretty god-like to me. Meanwhile, I think Harry could still be classified as a "man" rather than as a god because while he has magical powers, that's pretty much just a baseline in his world, and it's his human qualities he uses to fight Voldemort, not his magical powers. The central conflict in the Lord of the Rings is similar -- Sauron has given up his humanity for power, he has a great deal of control over others and has near omniscience, and he's trying to take over the world using his powers. Up against him is the very "human" Frodo, who doesn't really have anything going for him other than tenacity, the ability to mostly resist temptation and the loyalty of his friends.
Now that I think about it, I can't come up with an example of a fantasy story that I think falls into the "man vs. the supernatural" category where the hero doesn't prevail because of his human qualities rather than any magical powers (though that could just reflect my personal reading taste). It seems like the more powerful and non-human a villain becomes, so that he becomes invulnerable to magical attack, the more vulnerable he is to simple human things, so the hero's weakness becomes a great power. In fact, there's a lovely scene in A Wrinkle in Time that I used to read in prose interpretation competitions in high school that's exactly about that, quoting from First Corinthians: "For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." This dynamic makes it possible to create a really powerful villain who's nearly impossible to defeat who can still lose.
June 28, 2011
Book Report: The Good and the Bad
Last week, I was reading a chick lit book that really irked me and wondering if I'd outgrown that sort of thing or if it was just that book. It may have just been that book because I re-read one of my old favorites, and I loved it just as much as when I first read it, if not more so. I suppose as with any genre there's going to be good and bad, and I have fairly specific tastes even within the good books of genres I like. Unfortunately, re-reading this one made me want more like it, and that's kind of hard to find (again, specific tastes).
The old favorite was Making Minty Malone by Isabel Wolff, and it was one of the very first chick lit books I read, not long after Bridget Jones's Diary. Minty (short for Araminta -- she was named after her grandmother) has the perfect wedding to the perfect man (well, aside from a few controlling tendencies, and some shallowness) planned, until they reach the part in the ceremony where the minister says, "Do you take this woman," and he says, "No," before giving a lame excuse and then walking back up the aisle and out the door. She spends the next year coming to terms with what happened, with the sometimes dubious help of her bossy novelist cousin who comes to her for a place to stay after her own break-up. I would classify this as a kind of coming-of-age novel because while there is a romantic plot, the main story is really about a woman figuring out who she is and who she wants to be. One of her problems is that she's a bit too nice, and not in a good way. It's not so much that she's a caring person who always thinks of others, but rather that she's terrified of conflict and of having anyone be mad at her, so she gives in, only to quietly resent it. A big part of her journey is learning to stand up for herself, say what she's thinking and ask for what she wants. Meanwhile, she's surrounded by a hilarious supporting cast of wacky characters, including a radio presenter with a speech impediment and a talent for mangling phrases, her grandmother's parrot that talks like a polite elderly English lady, her cousin with her crazy attempts at boosting her own writing career and her mother, who has a serious addiction to running fundraising campaigns. Re-reading this book reminded me of when I first read it, when the genre didn't even have a name (this one was published first in the US in mass-market paperback as a romance, so it was even before the trade paperback size was established for the genre) and when I knew I wanted to read more like it and write something like that. It made me want to move to London, or at least to a downtown area of a city where I could walk to restaurants and have cute, flirty encounters with men I run into on the sidewalks.
Okay, so I can walk to restaurants where I live now, but I don't encounter anyone on the sidewalks because everyone else is driving, and it's too hot to walk anywhere right now, anyway. It was a rather nice blast from the past. I've got one other book by this author that I'll have to re-read, and then I'll have to add her name to my list of authors to scour used bookstores for, as that sort of book has pretty much become unavailable elsewhere. Sometimes I can luck into a British edition that way. It's frustrating to get into a reading mood that can only be fulfilled by something that's either not readily available or that I've re-read the life out of. But that's publishing for you, all or nothing.
It did seem to me like the American publishers missed the point when they got into the genre. They were trying to do something closer to Sex and the City, but the early British books that established the genre weren't about shopping and shoes and dropping designer names. I don't even think they were all that edgy. There may have been drinking, sex and swearing, but there was an underlying sweetness and niceness. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the British heroines tended to be struggling underdogs, while the American heroines tended to be goal-oriented go-getters. Maybe it's a cultural difference.
Since that re-read, I started trying to read a book that intrigued me because it involves a region I'm familiar with. It got a lot of critical acclaim (including a review in our local newspaper and reviews in national magazines) and was a bestseller. And it's probably a good thing I don't work on the other side of the desk in publishing because I'd have guessed wrong. I'd have rejected this book before I finished the first chapter. The writing was on the level of a first-time manuscript written by someone who'd just decided to write a novel. The entire first chapter was an "as you know, Bob" conversation. That's when two characters exchange information they both already know, purely for the benefit of the reader. This book opens with an entire chapter of the family attorney telling the matriarch her family's history -- and it isn't redeemed by her turning out not to remember it or her saying acidly, "Yes, I know. I was there." It's just pages and pages of, "Your family bought this property and your grandfather started this business, where you've worked your whole life, blah, blah, blah." (Details made up to protect the guilty.) I kept thinking it had to get better, or the book would have never made it past an editor, but I reached page 70 and decided that life was too short. Even if it turned out to be enthralling later and even if the characters stopped talking like no person ever does and turned into people who might have been a tiny bit realistic, I'm still surprised the editor didn't make the author fix that opening. I barely even took in the information because I was so busy rolling my eyes at such a blatant bit of "as you know, Bob."
I'm very confused about this industry. I don't see how something so amateurishly written not only got bought but got given the bestseller treatment. I wonder how many of the people who bought copies of this book after hearing the hype actually read the whole thing. Now I'm tempted to look at the Amazon reviews to see what readers thought, but I'm afraid that there will be tons of raves and I'll be even more confused. I run across a lot of books that fall into the "not for me" category, where I just don't like them but can still recognize that they're competently written. With this one, the subject matter appealed to me, but the writing was too bad for me to read it, and yet it's a lot more successful than anything I've ever written, and without any of the usual hooks like a thinly veiled celebrity connection or sexy vampires.
But I'm feeling much better now, since I decided to re-read a Terry Pratchett book instead. There, I totally understand the success.
The old favorite was Making Minty Malone by Isabel Wolff, and it was one of the very first chick lit books I read, not long after Bridget Jones's Diary. Minty (short for Araminta -- she was named after her grandmother) has the perfect wedding to the perfect man (well, aside from a few controlling tendencies, and some shallowness) planned, until they reach the part in the ceremony where the minister says, "Do you take this woman," and he says, "No," before giving a lame excuse and then walking back up the aisle and out the door. She spends the next year coming to terms with what happened, with the sometimes dubious help of her bossy novelist cousin who comes to her for a place to stay after her own break-up. I would classify this as a kind of coming-of-age novel because while there is a romantic plot, the main story is really about a woman figuring out who she is and who she wants to be. One of her problems is that she's a bit too nice, and not in a good way. It's not so much that she's a caring person who always thinks of others, but rather that she's terrified of conflict and of having anyone be mad at her, so she gives in, only to quietly resent it. A big part of her journey is learning to stand up for herself, say what she's thinking and ask for what she wants. Meanwhile, she's surrounded by a hilarious supporting cast of wacky characters, including a radio presenter with a speech impediment and a talent for mangling phrases, her grandmother's parrot that talks like a polite elderly English lady, her cousin with her crazy attempts at boosting her own writing career and her mother, who has a serious addiction to running fundraising campaigns. Re-reading this book reminded me of when I first read it, when the genre didn't even have a name (this one was published first in the US in mass-market paperback as a romance, so it was even before the trade paperback size was established for the genre) and when I knew I wanted to read more like it and write something like that. It made me want to move to London, or at least to a downtown area of a city where I could walk to restaurants and have cute, flirty encounters with men I run into on the sidewalks.
Okay, so I can walk to restaurants where I live now, but I don't encounter anyone on the sidewalks because everyone else is driving, and it's too hot to walk anywhere right now, anyway. It was a rather nice blast from the past. I've got one other book by this author that I'll have to re-read, and then I'll have to add her name to my list of authors to scour used bookstores for, as that sort of book has pretty much become unavailable elsewhere. Sometimes I can luck into a British edition that way. It's frustrating to get into a reading mood that can only be fulfilled by something that's either not readily available or that I've re-read the life out of. But that's publishing for you, all or nothing.
It did seem to me like the American publishers missed the point when they got into the genre. They were trying to do something closer to Sex and the City, but the early British books that established the genre weren't about shopping and shoes and dropping designer names. I don't even think they were all that edgy. There may have been drinking, sex and swearing, but there was an underlying sweetness and niceness. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the British heroines tended to be struggling underdogs, while the American heroines tended to be goal-oriented go-getters. Maybe it's a cultural difference.
Since that re-read, I started trying to read a book that intrigued me because it involves a region I'm familiar with. It got a lot of critical acclaim (including a review in our local newspaper and reviews in national magazines) and was a bestseller. And it's probably a good thing I don't work on the other side of the desk in publishing because I'd have guessed wrong. I'd have rejected this book before I finished the first chapter. The writing was on the level of a first-time manuscript written by someone who'd just decided to write a novel. The entire first chapter was an "as you know, Bob" conversation. That's when two characters exchange information they both already know, purely for the benefit of the reader. This book opens with an entire chapter of the family attorney telling the matriarch her family's history -- and it isn't redeemed by her turning out not to remember it or her saying acidly, "Yes, I know. I was there." It's just pages and pages of, "Your family bought this property and your grandfather started this business, where you've worked your whole life, blah, blah, blah." (Details made up to protect the guilty.) I kept thinking it had to get better, or the book would have never made it past an editor, but I reached page 70 and decided that life was too short. Even if it turned out to be enthralling later and even if the characters stopped talking like no person ever does and turned into people who might have been a tiny bit realistic, I'm still surprised the editor didn't make the author fix that opening. I barely even took in the information because I was so busy rolling my eyes at such a blatant bit of "as you know, Bob."
I'm very confused about this industry. I don't see how something so amateurishly written not only got bought but got given the bestseller treatment. I wonder how many of the people who bought copies of this book after hearing the hype actually read the whole thing. Now I'm tempted to look at the Amazon reviews to see what readers thought, but I'm afraid that there will be tons of raves and I'll be even more confused. I run across a lot of books that fall into the "not for me" category, where I just don't like them but can still recognize that they're competently written. With this one, the subject matter appealed to me, but the writing was too bad for me to read it, and yet it's a lot more successful than anything I've ever written, and without any of the usual hooks like a thinly veiled celebrity connection or sexy vampires.
But I'm feeling much better now, since I decided to re-read a Terry Pratchett book instead. There, I totally understand the success.
June 27, 2011
Once Upon a Featherbed
It looks like getting those old romance novels out again is one of those "don't hold your breath" things. According to the contract, I can't ask for reversion of rights until six years after the last time they've exercised the rights, and then all I can do is send a letter saying, essentially "use 'em or lose 'em," at which time they have 18 months to exercise the rights (in other words, publish the book again in some form), and if they don't do so within that time, then the rights revert to me and I can do what I want with those books. Only one of my Silhouette novels is eligible for reversion, since with the other they did an electronic Japanese edition in 2006. I don't know what sticklers they are for exercising every right they have, if they'd keep me waiting for the full 18 months or if it's possible they'd get that letter and immediately let me know that they're done with the book. I'll discuss it with my agent when she gets back from the RWA conference.
I had a really productive weekend. I'd planned to do a major housecleaning, and it didn't quite work out that way, but I did make major progress in one spot. There's a bookcase and adjacent corner in my bedroom that's a big clutter zone. Stuff gets piled on the bookcase, then taken out and left near the bookcase when I need to find something on the bookcase. Meanwhile, that corner is behind the door and is where things that don't have another home, like suitcases, go to live. I got that bookcase decluttered and organized and cleared out and vacuumed the corner. The suitcases are still there, but they have to wait for the office closets to get cleaned out to get a home. There was a bit of a Princess and the Pea experiment that came out of this process, as one of the things living in the corner is my old featherbed, folded up in its case. I got the bright idea that if I put the old featherbed under the new one, I'd have the ultimate big, fluffy bed. It turns out that while it was fun to climb onto and sink into, it wasn't that comfortable for sleeping, so I got up about fifteen minutes later and took it all apart. I don't know if that proves that I am a real princess or proves that I'm not. It did prove that there is such a thing as too soft a bed. I also washed, starched and ironed the Battenburg lace pillow shams and did a thorough scrub of the bathroom. My efforts to turn my bedroom suite into a nice hotel room are progressing.
I finished my marathon of A Game of Thrones, and now I'm a little bereft at having no more to watch, but I still have the books to read, and by the time I get around to reading all of them, it'll be time for the new season. I figure those will be fall/winter books, so I won't have to wait for the new one (though it sounds like there will likely be a wait for the one after that). I got my copy of the first book a couple of months before the publication date, so this may be the longest it's taken me to read an advance copy, but just imagine how frustrated I'd have been waiting for the new book if I'd started reading the series before official publication.
I do remember the time I initially tried reading the first book, and it was before publication. I recall that it was Labor Day weekend. We usually got off early on the Friday before a holiday weekend, but it wasn't the sort of thing we could plan on. It was one of those weird things that seems nice but that's actually a control game on the part of the boss. He wouldn't officially declare that the holiday started at whatever time on Friday (and he owned the company, so it wasn't just him sneaking past corporate policy). We couldn't act like we expected it, either, or he wouldn't let us go. The time he let us go also varied, so we couldn't make plans around getting away early. The one nice thing about it was that it meant we had unstructured free time when we did get let go. I remember on that weekend I picked up a bottle of wine on the way home from work, and then I came home with plans to bury myself in a fat fantasy novel.
When I say I need to fall in love with a character in a book to get into it, I usually don't mean romantic love, that there has to be a hot guy for me to fall in love with. I mostly mean that there needs to be some character for me to become attached to, someone I care enough about to pull me into the book. But in this case, I think I was looking for a book boyfriend. I'd gone through a dating dry spell after having had a boyfriend the previous year (little did I know that it would get much, much worse), and I think I wanted to fall in love with someone in a book. I'd decided to read the fat fantasy novel because you can generally count on there being some studly 20-30-something guy in most epic fantasies. In this one, though, it seemed like all the characters were either teenagers or the parents of teenagers. I was in my 20s at the time, so neither category was all that appealing to me. I guess the combination of the absence of book boyfriend material and the rapid jumping around among viewpoint characters early in the book made it hard for me to get into the book that weekend, and I never gave it another try when I was in a different mood. I do think they made the right call in aging the characters up for the TV series. While a 14-year-old might have been a full adult in a world like that, the visual of a modern 14-year-old would have been kind of silly. The casting seems to have taken actors whose age is the equivalent of the role the teens would have played in that society. I think that will help me in reading, so I won't be picturing the teenagers I know doing those kinds of things.
But before I can read that series, I need to revise another book, then do a lot of research reading for the next two projects.
I had a really productive weekend. I'd planned to do a major housecleaning, and it didn't quite work out that way, but I did make major progress in one spot. There's a bookcase and adjacent corner in my bedroom that's a big clutter zone. Stuff gets piled on the bookcase, then taken out and left near the bookcase when I need to find something on the bookcase. Meanwhile, that corner is behind the door and is where things that don't have another home, like suitcases, go to live. I got that bookcase decluttered and organized and cleared out and vacuumed the corner. The suitcases are still there, but they have to wait for the office closets to get cleaned out to get a home. There was a bit of a Princess and the Pea experiment that came out of this process, as one of the things living in the corner is my old featherbed, folded up in its case. I got the bright idea that if I put the old featherbed under the new one, I'd have the ultimate big, fluffy bed. It turns out that while it was fun to climb onto and sink into, it wasn't that comfortable for sleeping, so I got up about fifteen minutes later and took it all apart. I don't know if that proves that I am a real princess or proves that I'm not. It did prove that there is such a thing as too soft a bed. I also washed, starched and ironed the Battenburg lace pillow shams and did a thorough scrub of the bathroom. My efforts to turn my bedroom suite into a nice hotel room are progressing.
I finished my marathon of A Game of Thrones, and now I'm a little bereft at having no more to watch, but I still have the books to read, and by the time I get around to reading all of them, it'll be time for the new season. I figure those will be fall/winter books, so I won't have to wait for the new one (though it sounds like there will likely be a wait for the one after that). I got my copy of the first book a couple of months before the publication date, so this may be the longest it's taken me to read an advance copy, but just imagine how frustrated I'd have been waiting for the new book if I'd started reading the series before official publication.
I do remember the time I initially tried reading the first book, and it was before publication. I recall that it was Labor Day weekend. We usually got off early on the Friday before a holiday weekend, but it wasn't the sort of thing we could plan on. It was one of those weird things that seems nice but that's actually a control game on the part of the boss. He wouldn't officially declare that the holiday started at whatever time on Friday (and he owned the company, so it wasn't just him sneaking past corporate policy). We couldn't act like we expected it, either, or he wouldn't let us go. The time he let us go also varied, so we couldn't make plans around getting away early. The one nice thing about it was that it meant we had unstructured free time when we did get let go. I remember on that weekend I picked up a bottle of wine on the way home from work, and then I came home with plans to bury myself in a fat fantasy novel.
When I say I need to fall in love with a character in a book to get into it, I usually don't mean romantic love, that there has to be a hot guy for me to fall in love with. I mostly mean that there needs to be some character for me to become attached to, someone I care enough about to pull me into the book. But in this case, I think I was looking for a book boyfriend. I'd gone through a dating dry spell after having had a boyfriend the previous year (little did I know that it would get much, much worse), and I think I wanted to fall in love with someone in a book. I'd decided to read the fat fantasy novel because you can generally count on there being some studly 20-30-something guy in most epic fantasies. In this one, though, it seemed like all the characters were either teenagers or the parents of teenagers. I was in my 20s at the time, so neither category was all that appealing to me. I guess the combination of the absence of book boyfriend material and the rapid jumping around among viewpoint characters early in the book made it hard for me to get into the book that weekend, and I never gave it another try when I was in a different mood. I do think they made the right call in aging the characters up for the TV series. While a 14-year-old might have been a full adult in a world like that, the visual of a modern 14-year-old would have been kind of silly. The casting seems to have taken actors whose age is the equivalent of the role the teens would have played in that society. I think that will help me in reading, so I won't be picturing the teenagers I know doing those kinds of things.
But before I can read that series, I need to revise another book, then do a lot of research reading for the next two projects.
June 24, 2011
Yay, Friday!
I now have just three more chapters to read, and I'll consider this book done enough to send to my agent. I have all kinds of nagging doubts and I'm not sure the voice and style are what publishers are looking for in this kind of thing, but I think the voice and style fit this story and these characters. It's not as funny as what I'm known for, though there is some humor, but this isn't a comedy and I don't see how I could make this story into a comedy.
I had a very strange nightmare last night in which a real estate agent stuck her sign in my yard and started giving me instructions on what I'd have to do in order to sell my house. I was getting all frantic about it because I didn't really want to sell and I didn't have time to get all that stuff done. I woke up just enough to realize it wasn't real and I didn't have to try to sell my house, but that wasn't enough. To stop the panicky feeling, I had to go back to sleep and go back into the dream, where I called the real estate agent and asked her why she was trying to sell my house. She told me my husband had contacted her. I told her I didn't have a husband, and she realized there was a mix-up and she was dealing with the wrong house. I think, though, that may have been a message from my subconscious that I need to do some work around the house, so once I get the book done, I think I'll spend Saturday doing some serious cleaning and organizing. You know things are bad when you're having nightmares about it.
In other news, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pull the trigger to actually go to WorldCon in Reno. I've got the membership and hotel reservation, but I'd been wavering about whether or not to go, since I don't have anything upcoming (yet) to promote and don't really have any business I could get done. I may not even be relevant enough to be considered for programming. But networking is never bad, and that networking can pay off in the future. I met some awesome people at the last WorldCon. Plus, I have a room in a nice hotel/resort, and programming seldom starts before 10 in the morning, so I can enjoy some hanging out in the hotel time and treat it almost like a working vacation. This will be the only travel I do this year. I made a plane reservation yesterday and have to buy the tickets today, and I think I'm going to go ahead and go for it. I'm already thinking of fun things I'll get to do. If I don't get on programming, then my schedule will be loose and I can choose what sessions to go to and will be able to learn and absorb all kinds of stuff. I'm friends with the guest of honor, so I may even get to hang out with the cool people. Now I just hope I have enough income the rest of the year to cover it all. I'm hoping for a decent royalty check in August.
On a moneymaking note, I think (though I'll have to check my contracts) the rights to the romantic comedies I wrote for Silhouette should have reverted to me. Would there be any interest in having these available as e-books? They aren't fantasy at all, but I would say that the style and tone might be similar to my fantasy books, only without the magic (though I haven't read them in more than a decade, so who knows?). They're short, only about 50,000 words, so I'd probably make them cheap. I'd just have to deal with the digitizing, formatting and getting new covers. They've been out of print forever, but the rights reversion also takes forever because they tend to keep books in print by doing foreign editions. In fact, formally asking for a rights reversion may trigger a new Czech special release. Anyway, just testing the waters to see if there's enough interest to go through the effort. I wouldn't want to do all this and then sell five copies.
I had a very strange nightmare last night in which a real estate agent stuck her sign in my yard and started giving me instructions on what I'd have to do in order to sell my house. I was getting all frantic about it because I didn't really want to sell and I didn't have time to get all that stuff done. I woke up just enough to realize it wasn't real and I didn't have to try to sell my house, but that wasn't enough. To stop the panicky feeling, I had to go back to sleep and go back into the dream, where I called the real estate agent and asked her why she was trying to sell my house. She told me my husband had contacted her. I told her I didn't have a husband, and she realized there was a mix-up and she was dealing with the wrong house. I think, though, that may have been a message from my subconscious that I need to do some work around the house, so once I get the book done, I think I'll spend Saturday doing some serious cleaning and organizing. You know things are bad when you're having nightmares about it.
In other news, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pull the trigger to actually go to WorldCon in Reno. I've got the membership and hotel reservation, but I'd been wavering about whether or not to go, since I don't have anything upcoming (yet) to promote and don't really have any business I could get done. I may not even be relevant enough to be considered for programming. But networking is never bad, and that networking can pay off in the future. I met some awesome people at the last WorldCon. Plus, I have a room in a nice hotel/resort, and programming seldom starts before 10 in the morning, so I can enjoy some hanging out in the hotel time and treat it almost like a working vacation. This will be the only travel I do this year. I made a plane reservation yesterday and have to buy the tickets today, and I think I'm going to go ahead and go for it. I'm already thinking of fun things I'll get to do. If I don't get on programming, then my schedule will be loose and I can choose what sessions to go to and will be able to learn and absorb all kinds of stuff. I'm friends with the guest of honor, so I may even get to hang out with the cool people. Now I just hope I have enough income the rest of the year to cover it all. I'm hoping for a decent royalty check in August.
On a moneymaking note, I think (though I'll have to check my contracts) the rights to the romantic comedies I wrote for Silhouette should have reverted to me. Would there be any interest in having these available as e-books? They aren't fantasy at all, but I would say that the style and tone might be similar to my fantasy books, only without the magic (though I haven't read them in more than a decade, so who knows?). They're short, only about 50,000 words, so I'd probably make them cheap. I'd just have to deal with the digitizing, formatting and getting new covers. They've been out of print forever, but the rights reversion also takes forever because they tend to keep books in print by doing foreign editions. In fact, formally asking for a rights reversion may trigger a new Czech special release. Anyway, just testing the waters to see if there's enough interest to go through the effort. I wouldn't want to do all this and then sell five copies.
June 23, 2011
Dangerous Proofreading
I was moderately social last night. It was the last choir rehearsal of the summer, and a bunch of us went out to dinner after rehearsal. Although we spend a lot of time together, it's not really social time (or it's not supposed to be, but that seldom stops the sopranos), so I learned some fun things about choir members that I didn't know. Like, I learned that our tenor soloist went to the "Fame" high school in New York, and I learned that one of the sopranos (whose son was my teen helper for Vacation Bible School last summer) is almost as big a nerd as I am. I'd have never guessed it, but she's seriously into stuff like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter. I think we will need to chat more.
I'm in the proofreading phase of the book I'm working on. That's when I read the whole thing out loud. That forces me to read every word the way it's written instead of just seeing what I think should be there. It also makes awkward wording really obvious. The difficulty in doing this is that spending several hours a day reading out loud can be a strain on the voice. I'm a little raspy today, but I'm not sure if it's the reading or the combination of the reading and something else. I've read a whole book in a day that way without too much pain. I may have to whisper for today's reading and avoid other talking for a few days, since I have a choir workshop on Sunday afternoon and need to be able to sing then.
I should finish this one this week, and then I'll have to do the same thing again next week for the other project. And then I'm going to take my mid-summer "vacation," which will mostly be my preparation retreat for the next thing I plan to work on. That's time to watch movies that remind me of the story and read reference material. Since this is a revisiting of a backburnered project, I'll also re-read the existing draft, probably on my phone, so I'm not tempted to start editing until I've evaluated the whole thing. I've caught myself daydreaming scenes and thinking about the characters, so I think my subconscious is eager to get to work on this.
I'm in the proofreading phase of the book I'm working on. That's when I read the whole thing out loud. That forces me to read every word the way it's written instead of just seeing what I think should be there. It also makes awkward wording really obvious. The difficulty in doing this is that spending several hours a day reading out loud can be a strain on the voice. I'm a little raspy today, but I'm not sure if it's the reading or the combination of the reading and something else. I've read a whole book in a day that way without too much pain. I may have to whisper for today's reading and avoid other talking for a few days, since I have a choir workshop on Sunday afternoon and need to be able to sing then.
I should finish this one this week, and then I'll have to do the same thing again next week for the other project. And then I'm going to take my mid-summer "vacation," which will mostly be my preparation retreat for the next thing I plan to work on. That's time to watch movies that remind me of the story and read reference material. Since this is a revisiting of a backburnered project, I'll also re-read the existing draft, probably on my phone, so I'm not tempted to start editing until I've evaluated the whole thing. I've caught myself daydreaming scenes and thinking about the characters, so I think my subconscious is eager to get to work on this.
June 22, 2011
The Chick Lit Roots of Enchanted, Inc.
In the absence of any reader-generated questions about the Enchanted, Inc. series, I thought I'd pick my own topic to discuss.
I've mentioned that the beginnings of the idea sprang from merging two genres I enjoyed. I first got the idea in January of 2002, which was fairly early in the "chick lit" craze, when it had just started appearing in the US, with American books by American authors instead of just imports. I'd been on a couple of trips to England, where I'd loaded up on books that weren't yet available in the US or that wouldn't show up here for a while. I'd been reading (and trying to write) contemporary romances, without much success. I'd had a couple of books published in a romantic comedy line from Silhouette that may have been proto-chick lit (in fact, the editor who started it became one of the major American chick lit authors), but the line died, and my editor sent me a newspaper clipping about Bridget Jones's Diary, which had been a hit in the UK and that was just about to be published in America. She said she thought that was what I ought to try to write. At the time, though, there wasn't anything else like it in the US, where the closest thing was the contemporary romantic comedies that were popular then, the ones with the kind of cartoony covers. That was what I tried (and failed) to write.
When I actually found some chick lit novels, it was a lightbulb moment and I understood why I was having a hard time writing the romance novels. In a romance novel, the focus is on the conflict between the hero and heroine -- Mr. Right shows up at the beginning of the book, which really pisses off the heroine. They spend much of the book fighting or disagreeing, until they finally fall in love near the end. In the chick lit books, the focus was more on finding or discerning Mr. Right. The heroine might have bad dates with other guys while Mr. Right was just there in the background. That reflected my life far better. Finding someone to date is a challenge, then the dates tend to go badly. I don't have perfect men irritating me by falling out of the sky. There was also a lot of emphasis on elements outside the relationship, like dealing with friends, career, crazy bosses, etc. I devoured these books. Meanwhile, I was also finally getting into the Harry Potter series, where there was magical stuff in a relatable modern setting. I thought it would be fun to combine the two genres, adding magic to all that career girl in the city stuff. Unfortunately, my series was bought as chick lit rather than as fantasy and came out just as the genre was glutting and right before it tanked, and the publisher still sees it as chick lit rather than as fantasy.
On my last library trip, I found a chick lit book I hadn't read, one that was probably contracted right before the market tanked and published on the tail end of the trend. It's pretty much the Generic American Chick Lit Novel -- heroine works in some form of publishing, has a gay male best friend and a married female best friend who doesn't understand dating because she married her college sweetheart, has money problems and is angsting because she's reached some meaningful birthday and (gasp!) still isn't married, but her odds of finding someone to marry are slim because she tends to get into relationships by getting really drunk, then sleeping with some guy and then just falling into an ongoing thing with him. I'm having a hard time reading this book, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm ten years older than I was when I started devouring these books, so I have a lot less sympathy for the "I'm not married!" angst and poor relationship decisions. Or it could be that I never really warmed to American chick lit. I always preferred the British tone and style. Or maybe it's just this book. I may need to re-read one of my favorites to see if it's just this book or if it's me.
Although when I developed my series, I had in mind the elements of a chick lit book, with multiple potential guys, job issues, dating and friends, I don't know that I still see it that way, not even the first book. Each book has moved more solidly into the fantasy realm. I think they still have that chick lit-like tone, but the stories grew farther from what chick lit readers who aren't fantasy readers would like. In fact, until I started reading this book, I'd almost forgotten those chick lit roots (aside from my pitch line of "Bridget Jones meets Harry Potter"). I'll admit that back at the time, I wanted it published as chick lit because I thought that would give it higher visibility -- you never saw fantasy books on those tables at the front of the bookstore then -- and I couldn't visualize a "fantasy" cover that would fit. I still can't picture a different kind of cover than these books have. I've even talked with a friend who's a prominent fantasy book cover artist, and he can't think of another way to present these books that would fit. The covers I got were very close to what I visualized as I was writing the first book.
So, that's a lot to do with where the books were shelved and why.
I've mentioned that the beginnings of the idea sprang from merging two genres I enjoyed. I first got the idea in January of 2002, which was fairly early in the "chick lit" craze, when it had just started appearing in the US, with American books by American authors instead of just imports. I'd been on a couple of trips to England, where I'd loaded up on books that weren't yet available in the US or that wouldn't show up here for a while. I'd been reading (and trying to write) contemporary romances, without much success. I'd had a couple of books published in a romantic comedy line from Silhouette that may have been proto-chick lit (in fact, the editor who started it became one of the major American chick lit authors), but the line died, and my editor sent me a newspaper clipping about Bridget Jones's Diary, which had been a hit in the UK and that was just about to be published in America. She said she thought that was what I ought to try to write. At the time, though, there wasn't anything else like it in the US, where the closest thing was the contemporary romantic comedies that were popular then, the ones with the kind of cartoony covers. That was what I tried (and failed) to write.
When I actually found some chick lit novels, it was a lightbulb moment and I understood why I was having a hard time writing the romance novels. In a romance novel, the focus is on the conflict between the hero and heroine -- Mr. Right shows up at the beginning of the book, which really pisses off the heroine. They spend much of the book fighting or disagreeing, until they finally fall in love near the end. In the chick lit books, the focus was more on finding or discerning Mr. Right. The heroine might have bad dates with other guys while Mr. Right was just there in the background. That reflected my life far better. Finding someone to date is a challenge, then the dates tend to go badly. I don't have perfect men irritating me by falling out of the sky. There was also a lot of emphasis on elements outside the relationship, like dealing with friends, career, crazy bosses, etc. I devoured these books. Meanwhile, I was also finally getting into the Harry Potter series, where there was magical stuff in a relatable modern setting. I thought it would be fun to combine the two genres, adding magic to all that career girl in the city stuff. Unfortunately, my series was bought as chick lit rather than as fantasy and came out just as the genre was glutting and right before it tanked, and the publisher still sees it as chick lit rather than as fantasy.
On my last library trip, I found a chick lit book I hadn't read, one that was probably contracted right before the market tanked and published on the tail end of the trend. It's pretty much the Generic American Chick Lit Novel -- heroine works in some form of publishing, has a gay male best friend and a married female best friend who doesn't understand dating because she married her college sweetheart, has money problems and is angsting because she's reached some meaningful birthday and (gasp!) still isn't married, but her odds of finding someone to marry are slim because she tends to get into relationships by getting really drunk, then sleeping with some guy and then just falling into an ongoing thing with him. I'm having a hard time reading this book, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm ten years older than I was when I started devouring these books, so I have a lot less sympathy for the "I'm not married!" angst and poor relationship decisions. Or it could be that I never really warmed to American chick lit. I always preferred the British tone and style. Or maybe it's just this book. I may need to re-read one of my favorites to see if it's just this book or if it's me.
Although when I developed my series, I had in mind the elements of a chick lit book, with multiple potential guys, job issues, dating and friends, I don't know that I still see it that way, not even the first book. Each book has moved more solidly into the fantasy realm. I think they still have that chick lit-like tone, but the stories grew farther from what chick lit readers who aren't fantasy readers would like. In fact, until I started reading this book, I'd almost forgotten those chick lit roots (aside from my pitch line of "Bridget Jones meets Harry Potter"). I'll admit that back at the time, I wanted it published as chick lit because I thought that would give it higher visibility -- you never saw fantasy books on those tables at the front of the bookstore then -- and I couldn't visualize a "fantasy" cover that would fit. I still can't picture a different kind of cover than these books have. I've even talked with a friend who's a prominent fantasy book cover artist, and he can't think of another way to present these books that would fit. The covers I got were very close to what I visualized as I was writing the first book.
So, that's a lot to do with where the books were shelved and why.
June 21, 2011
Book Report: More Immaturity
I don't have any Enchanted, Inc. series questions in queue to answer tomorrow, so if you've got something you want to know that is not about events that might happen in future books or backstory that's likely to be revealed in future books. In other words, no fishing for spoilers. Or I guess I could broaden the Q&A to other stuff, but I reserve the right not to answer questions.
As I continue the Summer of Extreme Immaturity, I have more young adult and children's books to discuss. I finally got The Hidden Gallery, the second book in the Incorrigibles series by Maryrose Wood. This series, about a young governess and the raised-by-wolves children she looks after, is a lot of fun. In this installment, our heroine, her employers and the children pay a visit to London, where a very strange guide book causes a lot of trouble. However, as much fun as this series is, I'm starting to feel that it's mostly about the voice and the antics of the children. The plot seems unnecessarily strung out, especially for a children's book. There seems to be one major revelation or development per book, right before the cliffhanger ending, which could easily lead to frustration rather than intrigue. Still, I like the characters and I would love to try writing something in that omniscient "storyteller" voice.
Then there was another sequel, the third book in the "Sorcery and Cecilia" series by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. This is one of those line-blurring books that comes from the YA side of the publisher and that was shelved in the teen section of my library, but it's not really a teen book. It's teen-safe, but there are no teen characters. The main characters are in their late 20s/early 30s and have pre-teen children. These books are written through the "letter game" with each author taking the role of one set of characters and developing the plot by exchanging letters, so the story is told entirely through letters exchanged by the main characters (something else I'd like to try). In this installment, which takes place ten years after the last book, one couple is trying to find a magician who disappeared while investigating a possible link between ley lines and the newly built railways, while the other couple has foiled an attempted kidnapping and found a mysterious girl who refuses to reveal her identity. I've really enjoyed this series, which combines two of my favorite kinds of books, Regency romances and fantasy. It's like Georgette Heyer with magic.
I'm finishing one more kids' book, and then my reading list will grow up a bit, as everything on it for the near future (which is related to a project I'll be working on) is in the adult category.
As I continue the Summer of Extreme Immaturity, I have more young adult and children's books to discuss. I finally got The Hidden Gallery, the second book in the Incorrigibles series by Maryrose Wood. This series, about a young governess and the raised-by-wolves children she looks after, is a lot of fun. In this installment, our heroine, her employers and the children pay a visit to London, where a very strange guide book causes a lot of trouble. However, as much fun as this series is, I'm starting to feel that it's mostly about the voice and the antics of the children. The plot seems unnecessarily strung out, especially for a children's book. There seems to be one major revelation or development per book, right before the cliffhanger ending, which could easily lead to frustration rather than intrigue. Still, I like the characters and I would love to try writing something in that omniscient "storyteller" voice.
Then there was another sequel, the third book in the "Sorcery and Cecilia" series by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. This is one of those line-blurring books that comes from the YA side of the publisher and that was shelved in the teen section of my library, but it's not really a teen book. It's teen-safe, but there are no teen characters. The main characters are in their late 20s/early 30s and have pre-teen children. These books are written through the "letter game" with each author taking the role of one set of characters and developing the plot by exchanging letters, so the story is told entirely through letters exchanged by the main characters (something else I'd like to try). In this installment, which takes place ten years after the last book, one couple is trying to find a magician who disappeared while investigating a possible link between ley lines and the newly built railways, while the other couple has foiled an attempted kidnapping and found a mysterious girl who refuses to reveal her identity. I've really enjoyed this series, which combines two of my favorite kinds of books, Regency romances and fantasy. It's like Georgette Heyer with magic.
I'm finishing one more kids' book, and then my reading list will grow up a bit, as everything on it for the near future (which is related to a project I'll be working on) is in the adult category.
June 20, 2011
Adrenaline Surges
I survived my first "special music" performance in church. I've sung solos as part of a choir anthem, and I've sung a duet in a concert, but this was the first time I've sung apart from the choir in a service. It was scary because of my freaky musical stage fright issues, but I got through it. I don't think it was the best I could do, but it was still pretty good and I've got a good feeling about it, so maybe the next time will be less scary. It gave me a huge adrenaline surge, though. I had to sing for two services, and after the second one, the combination of adrenaline and relief had me really wired. I could have run laps around the church, but I had to go back into the choir loft. I was so fidgety during the sermon that if I'd been sitting with my mom, I'd have probably gotten the dreaded "behave yourself" pinch. But then when I got home, I was utterly drained. I spent most of the day on the sofa, when I wasn't napping.
Then I got another one of those adrenaline surges when I checked the mail this morning. I had a big, scary envelope from the IRS. I could barely open it, my hands were shaking so badly. But then it turned out to be a notice that they owed me money. I guess I made an error in my tax return, but they didn't say what the error was. Funny, but even when they owe me money, the tone in the letter made it sound like I'd done something terribly wrong. I had to read the letter a couple of times before I figured out what it was really about because it seemed to be a form letter for "you made a mistake" that's used both for times you owe them and for times they owe you, with only the little box with the amount on the side showing which it is. I don't think I can use this as an excuse not to work because I'm so drained from the fight or flight response. I'm back to the previous project for another round that I think will focus on voice and tone.
I had a pretty busy weekend, so there wasn't any movie watching. I was out most of the day on Saturday and then Sunday afternoon's couch time mostly involved the History Channel. They had a couple of good WWII documentary type things, but then there was one I only caught part of that seemed to be promoting the theory that the Nazis were using alien technology or may even have been aliens themselves. They claimed that the German rocket program was based on alien technology, which means the US space program was based on alien technology. The former journalist in me was screaming about the total lack of balance in this program. Their "experts" were all UFO nut types. They didn't interview or quote a single actual rocket scientist, so it was all very one-sided, which means there's zero credibility involved. But what do you expect from a network whose idea of "history" programming is mostly shows about pawn shops or driving trucks on ice?
But on Sunday night, with a complete lack of anything on TV or any OnDemand HBO movies I cared to watch, I finally started watching the A Game of Thrones series OnDemand. I got an advance copy of the first book in that series ages ago, made a stab at reading it but couldn't get into it (I must not have tried very hard because my bookmark was at page 26, though it's possible I'd skipped ahead a little and didn't find anything to encourage me to keep reading). I think my main problem was that each chapter is from the perspective of a different character, and there were a lot of short chapters, so I didn't really attach to anyone. I hadn't managed to fall in love with a character, which meant I didn't get into the book. However, I got into the TV show pretty easily, thanks to the visuals and actors I liked. I still don't have any particular character I've attached to, but the plot is intriguing me.
I found myself doing what I often do when watching a Shakespeare production on TV. I got out the book and started following along. The TV production seems to be pretty faithful to the book. Some of the scenes and dialogue are directly from the book. This doesn't seem to me to be a case where I could choose book vs. movie or where I look at them as taking place in different universes. This seems to me to be a case of the book and TV series being companions, where it's difficult for me to enjoy one without the other. I picked up the book mostly because I was having trouble keeping track of the characters. I wasn't picking up on the names, so when a character was talking about someone who wasn't there, I had no idea who they were talking about. The book helped me keep the characters straight while the TV series brought the world to life. I watched the first two episodes and will probably be catching up in marathon form. Then I may really read the book.
My main complaint is that it's very much an HBO production, which means the attitude that nudity+cursing=quality television. I don't recall the "you can't say this on broadcast television" cursing being quite as prominent in the book. There is nudity and sex in the book, but what's weird is that in those scenes in the TV series, the characters aren't nude, and then in scenes where the book specifically mentions clothes, that's where the nudity on TV comes in. So they took out the author's plot-related nudity while adding gratuitous nudity elsewhere. It's funny how people seem to be having sex fully clothed, and yet they like to walk around their rooms totally naked and take five minutes to very, very gradually ease themselves into a bathtub. I know HBO is using their main differentiator from broadcast television and basic cable networks, but sometimes it comes across as doing it just because they can. I don't have a problem with the nudity in general, but it's almost never done in a natural way, where someone happens to be removing clothes for a purpose. It's always filmed with long, lingering shots that are sure to give viewers a real eyeful, and it's almost always female nudity. With this series, you could probably put together a pretty good drinking game, and I find myself rolling my eyes a lot because it's just so blatant.
Still, this should keep me occupied during the wait for the Sci Fi summer series to start, and it may give me a new epic fantasy series to read without having to wait years between books.
Then I got another one of those adrenaline surges when I checked the mail this morning. I had a big, scary envelope from the IRS. I could barely open it, my hands were shaking so badly. But then it turned out to be a notice that they owed me money. I guess I made an error in my tax return, but they didn't say what the error was. Funny, but even when they owe me money, the tone in the letter made it sound like I'd done something terribly wrong. I had to read the letter a couple of times before I figured out what it was really about because it seemed to be a form letter for "you made a mistake" that's used both for times you owe them and for times they owe you, with only the little box with the amount on the side showing which it is. I don't think I can use this as an excuse not to work because I'm so drained from the fight or flight response. I'm back to the previous project for another round that I think will focus on voice and tone.
I had a pretty busy weekend, so there wasn't any movie watching. I was out most of the day on Saturday and then Sunday afternoon's couch time mostly involved the History Channel. They had a couple of good WWII documentary type things, but then there was one I only caught part of that seemed to be promoting the theory that the Nazis were using alien technology or may even have been aliens themselves. They claimed that the German rocket program was based on alien technology, which means the US space program was based on alien technology. The former journalist in me was screaming about the total lack of balance in this program. Their "experts" were all UFO nut types. They didn't interview or quote a single actual rocket scientist, so it was all very one-sided, which means there's zero credibility involved. But what do you expect from a network whose idea of "history" programming is mostly shows about pawn shops or driving trucks on ice?
But on Sunday night, with a complete lack of anything on TV or any OnDemand HBO movies I cared to watch, I finally started watching the A Game of Thrones series OnDemand. I got an advance copy of the first book in that series ages ago, made a stab at reading it but couldn't get into it (I must not have tried very hard because my bookmark was at page 26, though it's possible I'd skipped ahead a little and didn't find anything to encourage me to keep reading). I think my main problem was that each chapter is from the perspective of a different character, and there were a lot of short chapters, so I didn't really attach to anyone. I hadn't managed to fall in love with a character, which meant I didn't get into the book. However, I got into the TV show pretty easily, thanks to the visuals and actors I liked. I still don't have any particular character I've attached to, but the plot is intriguing me.
I found myself doing what I often do when watching a Shakespeare production on TV. I got out the book and started following along. The TV production seems to be pretty faithful to the book. Some of the scenes and dialogue are directly from the book. This doesn't seem to me to be a case where I could choose book vs. movie or where I look at them as taking place in different universes. This seems to me to be a case of the book and TV series being companions, where it's difficult for me to enjoy one without the other. I picked up the book mostly because I was having trouble keeping track of the characters. I wasn't picking up on the names, so when a character was talking about someone who wasn't there, I had no idea who they were talking about. The book helped me keep the characters straight while the TV series brought the world to life. I watched the first two episodes and will probably be catching up in marathon form. Then I may really read the book.
My main complaint is that it's very much an HBO production, which means the attitude that nudity+cursing=quality television. I don't recall the "you can't say this on broadcast television" cursing being quite as prominent in the book. There is nudity and sex in the book, but what's weird is that in those scenes in the TV series, the characters aren't nude, and then in scenes where the book specifically mentions clothes, that's where the nudity on TV comes in. So they took out the author's plot-related nudity while adding gratuitous nudity elsewhere. It's funny how people seem to be having sex fully clothed, and yet they like to walk around their rooms totally naked and take five minutes to very, very gradually ease themselves into a bathtub. I know HBO is using their main differentiator from broadcast television and basic cable networks, but sometimes it comes across as doing it just because they can. I don't have a problem with the nudity in general, but it's almost never done in a natural way, where someone happens to be removing clothes for a purpose. It's always filmed with long, lingering shots that are sure to give viewers a real eyeful, and it's almost always female nudity. With this series, you could probably put together a pretty good drinking game, and I find myself rolling my eyes a lot because it's just so blatant.
Still, this should keep me occupied during the wait for the Sci Fi summer series to start, and it may give me a new epic fantasy series to read without having to wait years between books.
June 17, 2011
The TV Season in Review
I didn't do much of the catch-up stuff I was planning to do on my day off between projects, mostly because I got caught up in watching the Mavericks victory parade on TV (during commercial breaks in a CSI marathon -- Spike does very, very long, frequent commercial breaks). It was too big a crowd for my comfort level to even think about going in person, and I figure that I haven't been to a game since they played in Reunion Arena, so I would have been just jumping on the bandwagon (though I did drink my iced tea from an old Jason Kidd stadium cup from his first stint on the team). And then I made a Target run, ate some watermelon and washed dishes while listening to the CD of the big choral work my choir will be doing in the fall. I ended up staying up fairly late singing through some music while picking out the voice part on my keyboard (I need to learn to play the piano for real one of these days). Today I really must get some other stuff done, and I think I'm getting close to the wire for deciding whether or not to go to Worldcon.
I guess the regular TV season has come to an end, though the lines are getting blurry these days with some networks having actual summer seasons, but it's as good a time as any for a recap/review of the primary season. It was a lackluster year for new series for me. The only one I really liked was Chaos, which was promptly killed. I watched the new Hawaii 5-0, but I can't say I like it all that much. It's one of those things I'll eventually get around to watching OnDemand but wouldn't feel any sense of loss if I missed it entirely. I did start watching the original CSI very late in the game, mostly because my dad asked me if that was Starbuck as one of the detectives, so I watched an episode OnDemand to see what he was talking about. That one has mostly been added to my list of things I'll watch OnDemand when nothing else is on, and then the reruns on Spike are serving as my "thing to have on for background noise when I'm doing other stuff" viewing. It works well to watch while jogging on the mini trampoline because about 60 percent of the show is people doing lab work while music plays, so I don't have to worry about missing dialogue. I just slow to a walk during the rare times when they're actually talking.
I stopped watching NCIS Los Angeles, thanks to the cast changes and some truly bizarre writing. It went from an OnDemand show to one I never got around to watching OnDemand. I think the last one I saw, I turned it off mid-way through because I just couldn't take it anymore. I also gave up on House when they completely broke my suspension of disbelief by hiring a third-year medical student for a postdoctoral fellowship. I caught a few episodes late in the season when I discovered that they were running them a week later on USA, and I saw the finale, which may have created a new replacement for the "jump the shark" designation. I may watch the season premiere just to see how they write themselves out of it, but I don't think I can enjoy the character of House anymore.
Other shows seemed to have fairly lackluster seasons. There were a few moments of brilliance on Chuck, but they were weighted down by way too much emphasis on angsting over the relationship and the wedding planning. I'm all for nice-guy, best-friend type heroes, but geeze, Chuck, stop the whining and embrace your inner badass. I'm still not sure I get what was going on with the story arc on NCIS, but that's one of my "turn off your brain" shows. Supernatural became a chore to watch, and I don't know if I'll bother with it next season. The season finale cliffhanger was verging on blasphemy, and while I don't expect fiction to align with my religious beliefs, this made me very uncomfortable, and there's no point in watching something that's unpleasant. I'm a little worried about White Collar, since they're shoehorning in a totally unnecessary and (to me) unlikeable love interest, but it's too early in the summer season to judge.
I actually thought The Office turned things around in a big way near the end of the season with the build-up to Michael's departure and the aftermath. This season of Parks and Recreation totally won me over, to the point I bought the DVDs for last season and have been marathoning episodes.
I seem to be at an all-time low for the number of science fiction/fantasy type shows I watch, but that will change in the summer because I like the Sci Fi Channel's summer line-up. Then there's Doctor Who, but we only got half a season, which makes it hard to judge, but they really do seem to be on my wavelength these days for coming up with characters and story elements that seem tailor-made for me. I may be falling a little in love with Rory, and I don't even feel like too much of a dirty old woman, since he is about 2,000 years old and has a daughter older than I am, even if he's also just in his 20s (it's a timey-wimey thing). That's such a wonderful example of how a "best friend" character type can still become a total badass and how strength can come from caring and sensitivity. Chuck, take notes. This young nurse's love for his wife is so powerful that he will do absolutely anything to protect her, whether it's spending 2,000 years guarding her or taking on a galaxy full of villains to find her (and without whining about it). And his wife is no wimp -- she's a giant of a girl who'll pick up a sword and go at a ship full of pirates to try to rescue her husband, so that's proof that you don't have to weaken a woman to make a man stronger. Rory's the kind of character I tend to write, and it's lovely to have someone else doing it for me.
Coming up next month, we get the return of Warehouse 13 and Haven, both of which I'm excited about.
I guess the regular TV season has come to an end, though the lines are getting blurry these days with some networks having actual summer seasons, but it's as good a time as any for a recap/review of the primary season. It was a lackluster year for new series for me. The only one I really liked was Chaos, which was promptly killed. I watched the new Hawaii 5-0, but I can't say I like it all that much. It's one of those things I'll eventually get around to watching OnDemand but wouldn't feel any sense of loss if I missed it entirely. I did start watching the original CSI very late in the game, mostly because my dad asked me if that was Starbuck as one of the detectives, so I watched an episode OnDemand to see what he was talking about. That one has mostly been added to my list of things I'll watch OnDemand when nothing else is on, and then the reruns on Spike are serving as my "thing to have on for background noise when I'm doing other stuff" viewing. It works well to watch while jogging on the mini trampoline because about 60 percent of the show is people doing lab work while music plays, so I don't have to worry about missing dialogue. I just slow to a walk during the rare times when they're actually talking.
I stopped watching NCIS Los Angeles, thanks to the cast changes and some truly bizarre writing. It went from an OnDemand show to one I never got around to watching OnDemand. I think the last one I saw, I turned it off mid-way through because I just couldn't take it anymore. I also gave up on House when they completely broke my suspension of disbelief by hiring a third-year medical student for a postdoctoral fellowship. I caught a few episodes late in the season when I discovered that they were running them a week later on USA, and I saw the finale, which may have created a new replacement for the "jump the shark" designation. I may watch the season premiere just to see how they write themselves out of it, but I don't think I can enjoy the character of House anymore.
Other shows seemed to have fairly lackluster seasons. There were a few moments of brilliance on Chuck, but they were weighted down by way too much emphasis on angsting over the relationship and the wedding planning. I'm all for nice-guy, best-friend type heroes, but geeze, Chuck, stop the whining and embrace your inner badass. I'm still not sure I get what was going on with the story arc on NCIS, but that's one of my "turn off your brain" shows. Supernatural became a chore to watch, and I don't know if I'll bother with it next season. The season finale cliffhanger was verging on blasphemy, and while I don't expect fiction to align with my religious beliefs, this made me very uncomfortable, and there's no point in watching something that's unpleasant. I'm a little worried about White Collar, since they're shoehorning in a totally unnecessary and (to me) unlikeable love interest, but it's too early in the summer season to judge.
I actually thought The Office turned things around in a big way near the end of the season with the build-up to Michael's departure and the aftermath. This season of Parks and Recreation totally won me over, to the point I bought the DVDs for last season and have been marathoning episodes.
I seem to be at an all-time low for the number of science fiction/fantasy type shows I watch, but that will change in the summer because I like the Sci Fi Channel's summer line-up. Then there's Doctor Who, but we only got half a season, which makes it hard to judge, but they really do seem to be on my wavelength these days for coming up with characters and story elements that seem tailor-made for me. I may be falling a little in love with Rory, and I don't even feel like too much of a dirty old woman, since he is about 2,000 years old and has a daughter older than I am, even if he's also just in his 20s (it's a timey-wimey thing). That's such a wonderful example of how a "best friend" character type can still become a total badass and how strength can come from caring and sensitivity. Chuck, take notes. This young nurse's love for his wife is so powerful that he will do absolutely anything to protect her, whether it's spending 2,000 years guarding her or taking on a galaxy full of villains to find her (and without whining about it). And his wife is no wimp -- she's a giant of a girl who'll pick up a sword and go at a ship full of pirates to try to rescue her husband, so that's proof that you don't have to weaken a woman to make a man stronger. Rory's the kind of character I tend to write, and it's lovely to have someone else doing it for me.
Coming up next month, we get the return of Warehouse 13 and Haven, both of which I'm excited about.
