David B. Coe's Blog, page 17

Quick Review of MIRROR, MIRROR

Today, Nancy and I took our daughters and two of the younger daughter's friends to see Mirror, Mirror, the new Snow White interpretation starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins. It was good; not great but good. Certainly it was worth seeing, although if I could have seen it in our local theater (which charges $3 per person) instead of in one of the big theaters in Chattanooga for $7, it might have felt like a bit more of a bargain. Julia Roberts is wonderful as the evil queen. She is biting, coldly charming, and just desperate enough to be believable and somewhat sympathetic. Lily Collins was very good as Snow White. She is stunningly beautiful, and she brings strength and backbone to the role, which is very refreshing for those of us who still shudder at the sappy weakness of Disney's old animated Snow White. In the final scene she looks just like a young Audrey Hepburn, at least she does to me.

Armie Hammer, as Prince Alcott, and Nathan Lane, as Brighton, the queen's lackey, are both good as well, and the dwarves, with their odd stilts and quirky personalities give a nice twist to the old story. There are some pretty cool effects -- the mirror in particular, and also the puppet attack (see the movie; then you'll understand) -- and the costuming is very, very good. On the other hand, it is at root a somewhat silly story, and even the modern touches can't disguise that completely. As I say, it's good, but it's not brilliant by any stretch. That seemed to be the consensus among our group, at least. I don't like to reduce movie descriptions to numbers on a scale or stars, or anything of that sort. But on a scale of one to ten I'd give it a 7.5; or, put another way, about three and a half stars out of five.

Another Post About One of My Kids. So Sue me.

My younger daughter, who is in seventh grade, is playing middle school volleyball this year.  She is quite an athlete.  She's a truly gifted swimmer, and has been playing soccer since she was four years old.  But this is the first year she has played volleyball, and frankly I didn't know what to expect.  I played volleyball in high school; I always enjoyed it.  When my daughter started working with the team, she and I spent some time working on technique.  But until this afternoon, I hadn't seen her play in a match.

She was awesome.  She serves overhand, with a little run-up and jump.  And her serves are powerful!  She digs out hard shots from the other side like a pro, and she even had a couple of really nice spikes.  It's not that I didn't think she had the potential to be good at volleyball.  The truth is, she's good at just about every sport she tries.  (When she was in fourth grade, she won her school's Punt, Pass, and Kick competition and then took second place in the second round that covered this section of our state.  All this despite the fact that at the time she won the local competition, we didn't even own a football.)

What gets me though, is that I didn't know she could do the things I saw her do this afternoon.  I had no idea.  She blew me away.  Her team lost a very, very tight match, and she was there at the end, a leader on the team, consoling the girl who let up the final point -- that might have been the most impressive thing I saw her do, actually. 

She's the younger of my two kids, and in some ways I still think of her as younger than she is.  That's a mistake that will be much harder to make after what I saw today.

This evening I'm a proud papa.  Actually, I am most evenings...

New Book From Mary Robinette Kowal!

Today is book release day for my wonderfully talented friend, Mary Robinette Kowal. Her second novel, Glamour in Glass, is out today from Tor. And oddly enough, if you buy the book soon enough, you have an opportunity to own an instant collector's item. Yep. Mary explains here. You see, Tor, in one of those strange and unfortunate convergences of circumstance that sometimes mar the publishing process, printed the first run of Mary's novel without some final corrections, and without the novel's first line .

Even so, this promises to be a terrific book. Mary is a Hugo and Campbell Award-winning author whose first book, Shades of Milk and Honey, earned critical acclaim and several award nominations in its own right. Glamour in Glass promises to be one of the most important releases of this year. So pick up a copy, and own a collector's item.

A Post About the Emotions of Writing and Publishing

Today's post can be found at http://magicalwords.net, the group blog on the business and craft of writing fantasy that I maintain with fellow authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, A.J. Hartley, C.E. Murphy, and Kalayna Price, among others. The post is called "The Writing Life: Fear, Want, Dissatisfaction, Defiance," and it is about the roiled emotions that drive me to work and write. I hope you enjoy it.

Green With Envy

So I'm having a great time at Marcon. I've gotten to spend time with Faith Hunter and Lucienne Diver, I've met some terrific people, and had a few fun and interesting panels. But I have to admit that I have one strong regret about being here instead of at home. My wife and daughters got to see Alison Krauss and Union Station tonight in Chattanooga, and had I been home I would have gone with them. I love AKUS and though I've seen them in concert a few times before I still would have enjoyed seeing them again.

Anyway, tonight I get back to my hotel room and check my messages and there on my Facebook page is a photo of my two daughters standing with their arms around AKUS lead mandolinist and singer, Dan Tyminski, the voice behind the version of "Man of Constant Sorrow" from the movie Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou. I kid you not. I KNOW there is a great story behind this photo. I can't wait to hear it. And yes, I am totally jealous of my kids.

On My Way to Marcon!

I'm on my way to Marcon, where I will be a literary special guest. I'm staying tonight in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I had dinner with my wonderful friend, Faith Hunter. Faith and I will be driving up to Columbus tomorrow morning (while her husband, Rod, kayaks!) and joining up with our terrific agent, Lucienne Diver.

I always miss my family on these trips, but I also enjoy the chance to spend time with my writer friends and talk shop. That's what Faith and I did over dinner, and no doubt will again during our drive tomorrow. I hope to see some of you at the convention. If you're there, please find me and say hello. I'll be on panels, I have a reading on Saturday night, and I'll be signing books Friday. I'll also be catching up with an old friend from home Saturday morning. Looking forward to a fun weekend.

Short Story Release!

More D. B. Jackson news! I have a new story out (as D.B.) at Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show , the online magazine. The story is called "A Memory of Freedom," and it is the feature story in this month's issue of IGMS. You can read more about the story here. And, in case you're interested, here is the artwork that accompanies the story:



 

I hope that you'll visit the IGMS site and enjoy the story.

End of a Long Day

Long day. Ended better than it started, even with the Stanford Women getting beaten. But a long, long day. Parenting is hard. That's really all I have to say. Parenting is really, really hard. It's the most rewarding thing I do, but it takes the most energy, the most attention, the most emotion.

Long day.

Preparing for the Release of Thieftaker

A post about just that can be found at the D.B. Jackson blog. Yes, it's a little weird maintaining two careers and writing books as two different people: David B. Coe and D.B. Jackson. But that is the turn my career has taken. And the next big release belongs to D.B. Read more about it here.

A Wonderful Concert

It's late and I'm pretty tired. But I have glorious music flowing through my head as I get ready for bed. Tonight I got to see two fantastic musicians -- Bluegrass guitarist David Grier, and mandolinist Mike Compton -- in a great, intimate venue (McCrory Hall at the Saint Andrews-Sewanee School in Sewanee, Tennessee) for free. Yeah, for free. They played for two hours, going through a range of "fiddle tunes," waltzes, bluegrass classics, blues, and stunningly beautiful original instrumentals. Like I said, glorious.