Robyn Paterson's Blog, page 46
July 26, 2012
In Defense of the Male Miniskirt- Thoughts on the First Season of Star Trek:TNG
In Defense of the Male Miniskirt- Thoughts on the First Season of Star Trek:TNG
With the release of the first season of ST:TNG on Blu-Ray DVD in remastered sets this week, I thought I’d comment on what I think of as an overly maligned season of the show.
Nice legs!
There are many things that people tend to remember about the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They remember Tasha Yar, Wesley almost getting killed for stepping on the grass, uneven writing, Wesley saving the ship, wood...
July 15, 2012
Sarnia Bayfest 2012: Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden
Last night I had the honor of attending my very first heavy metal concert at Sarnia’s Bayfest music festival. The moment my friend Richard Moule told me about the lineup to last night’s show, Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper, I wanted in. I mean, I’ve been an Iron Maiden fan since my friend Don introduced me to them back in University, and my admiration for them has only grown over the years.
And, finally after months of waiting, the day finally arrived, and we drove down to Sarnia to see them.
Ove...
July 11, 2012
The significance of plot without conflict – still eating oranges
The necessity of conflict is preached as a kind of dogma by contemporary writers’ workshops and Internet “guides” to writing. A plot without conflict is considered dull; some even go so far as to call it impossible. This has influenced not only fiction, but writing in general—arguably even philosophy. Yet, is there any truth to this belief? Does plot necessarily hinge on conflict? No. Such claims are a product of the West’s insularity. For countless centuries, Chinese and Japanese writers hav...
July 8, 2012
TeaNoWriMo Update
Well, it’s been a week, so I thought I should report on how Teachers Novel Writing Month is progressing. I think I can sum the week up in one short video-
I had an idea in mind for a novel about a sleeper colony ship arriving at a new world and the problems that entailed, but apparently I was no where near as ready to write it as I thought I was. This turned into a lesson in the need for more pre-writing and less pantsing on my part. Sigh. I basically got started, hit a snag, and then spent th...
July 7, 2012
Penn’s Sunday School
When you hear someone say the phrase “truth is stranger than fiction”, they’re talking about Penn Jillette. The talking half of Penn and Teller is perhaps one of the strangest and most entertaining people alive, with more stories, and more weird friends than you can imagine are possible.
This is why I loved listening to his radio show on FREE FM out of Las Vegas, and why I was through the roof when I discovered he just started (In February of this year) a new weekly podcast/vidcast with his co...
July 5, 2012
Do people really love cats? Or are they actually compelled to by brain parasites?
So here’s a weird thought- Cat Lovers are Cat Lovers not always because they naturally love cats, but because they’re actually compelled to be close to cats by a parasite they’ve picked up which is affecting their brains. Scary, eh?
Impossible? Not at all, from the article:
Why is it that the elite French perfumers (known as “noses”) and sommeliers (“upturned noses”) of the world spend so much of their time inhaling cat effluvia from expensive glass bottles? A guess: It may have to do with a mi...
Amazing Spider-Man Lives Up to its Name!
Like most people, when I heard there was a new Spider-Man film my initial reactions were “why?” and “too soon”. I mean, it’s been less than a decade since the Sam Raimi films and I consider Spider-Man a pretty tapped out franchise with all the recent animated series and films.
However, if Sony Pictures didn’t put out a Spider-Man film this year, they lost the rights to the character, so they whipped together a team and rushed this film into production to meet their deadline. (And considering h...
Korean Drama: Ghost (aka Phantom)
I’m now an addict, I admit it.
I’m addicted to sharp, well written, high quality television. It’s true.
In this case, it’s the currently running Korean drama called Ghost (also know as Phantom, which can be another translation of its name in Korean) which is an utterly unique and compelling TV series. I heard about it from my wife, who has friends in Korea, and decided to give it a watch.
What I found was a show which was at the same time both familiar and completely new.
Without giving too much...
July 4, 2012
Really Good Collection of Editing and Revision Tips
I found a link today to a collection of 20 editing/revision tips that definitely made me think. I’m in the process of editing Twin Stars Bk1 at the moment, and I think I might use some of these as part of that process.
One that caught my eye was a suggested style guide:
10. Style guide (this is mine, and might not be for everyone, but I’m thinking music and readability):
Value nouns and verbs over adjectives and especially adverbs.
Value consonants over vowels.
Value hard consonants (e.g. k) over...
