Charlie Huston's Blog, page 107

kottke.org: PRISM in the 18th century

kottke.org: PRISM in the 18th century:

jkottke:

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about government programs like PRISM and how, according to defenders of such surveillance, they “only” collect metadata related to communications and not the content of the communication. In a clever article, Kieran Healy uses only the…

This digest is terrific, but I’m most appreciative to kottke.org for directing me to the complete article. Some of it gets pretty dense, but you can skim past the super tec...

STILL ALIVE!

No, really, I am.

Just very busy.

Something will happen to this site this year.

Probably that something will be a sudden and final disappearance.

Something else will appear.

Not sure what.

-c

Alive

Yes, I am.

Before it slips my mind, SLEEPLESS has been released in paperback.

Also on the agenda, the pilot for ALL SIGNS OF DEATH was shot, edited, submitted and passed on by HBO. In simple terms this means there will be no profit generating TV series based on one of my book premiering on a pay cable channel near you.

There are obvious negatives to this end, most of them revolve around money (though, in all honesty, I had a tremendous amount of fun in the process and would have liked to have had more), the positives are more subtle, but, seeing as they revolve around family and not having a boss, they are also highly prized.

I was shocked to discover that I was interested in adapting MYSTIC ARTS, and even more surprised to discover that the idea of working on a TV show in a day to day manner became appealing. Would have been nice to take a crack at that, but I still feel very much as if I walked into the casino, pushed my bet well beyond the point of sanity, and walked out with a great deal of the house's filth lucre in my pocket. Plus I got comped a suite and tickets to a great show.

Speaking of great shows, the pilot itself was pretty damn good. Whenever you endeavor to do something very complicated in a very short period of time with somewhat limited resources there are going to be compromises and mistakes that you just have to deal with. I think both were minimized beyond any reasonable expectation. Someday the hunger for content may induce someone to create an archive of pilots that never went to series. Short of that, I don't think too many people are going to get to see the ALL SIGNS OF DEATH pilot. I consider that a damn shame. Probably my one real regret from not putting this thing on the air is that folks will miss out on Ben Whishaw as Web Goodhue. The cast was pretty fucking great top to bottom, but Mr. Whishaw was remarkable.

Other stuff:

My launch run on WOLVERINE THE BEST THERE IS began last month. Issue #2 should be in shops this week or next. It's weird and over the top. Fun, I hope. Juan Jose Ryp's artwork is the star. Worth it just for the pictures.

I did a two issue Bullseye story called PERFECT GAME. I think both issues are out now.

I'm tinkering with more TV. Again, this is a shock to me. But I did have an obscene amount of fun. And there's a saying about striking and hot iron and some other stuff. Make hay while you can, people.

Most working hours are occupied with the next/new novel. This will be my first for Mulholland Books. Don't expect to see anything until 2012.

I did a short story for MH recently. HERE.

This website continues to feel like a bone in the throat to me. Something distracting and irritating. In needs to be serviced or replaced. Time and ideas are at issue. Still figuring that one out.

I expect to de more of my brief updates via Twitter. It just works so well for that crap. Easy, no distractions. So for the time being the best way to keep up with little bits of news will be to follow CharlieHuston. I know that's less than ideal or desirable for many people, but stuff changes.

"And I wonder," said Tegs, "Do we all come out the other side the same shape?"

Beller laughed through his nose.

"It's a machine, you asshole. It stamps and cuts. We all come out the same shape, but it ain't the one we had when we go in."

"So I'll be different."

Beller raised his hand, fingers replaced by twitching chromed wires, bundles of them, a handful of spiders' legs.

"Shit and ain't we all when it's done with us."

Tegs stepped into the machine.

What came out the other side cut to a new shape.

Don't blow up.

-c

Posting on Mulholland

I've written another essay for the Mulholland Books site. Find it HERE.

Black Hole

So it turns out that getting involved in TV production is rather like falling into a black hole.

Nothing can escape, not light, not even time.

Everything is sucked into the vortex of reality actively collapsing into fiction.

Time stands still, races ahead, and becomes fluidic.

"On the day."

Everything will happen "on the day."

Any problems that surface in pre-production are either problems that must be solved days ago or they are problems that can be solved "on the day."

The "day," however, never...

Mulholland Live

My new publisher, Mulholland Books, has a website.

I have an essay running on that site today.

More importantly, some folks with names like Lawrence Block, Joe R. Landsdale, Don Winslow and Nick Tosches have original essays and/or interviews on that site.

read on,

-c

PS

Yes, I've been quiet.

The HBO pilot based on MYSTIC ARTS is in pre-production, cameras roll tomorrow, and I'm unlikely to have much time to add anything here in the next few weeks while it is shooting.

Go outside and play.

On Contact

Due to some recent douche-baggery, I've had to remove my email address from the contact page.

If you've emailed me before, that address still works and you're welcome, as always, to email me again.

If you're trying to drop me a line for the first time, I apologize.

For the time being I'm keeping below the horizon until I figure out a system for douche bag avoidance. Once I have a system in place I'll be available for email again.

In the meantime, email you mom, she misses you.

-c

On TV

My pilot project for HBO based on THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ALL SIGNS OF DEATH has been greenlit.

The pilot will be shot later this summer, directed by my executive producer Alan Ball, but with no guarantees that there will be a series to follow. Which is normal.

(Hollywood Hint For Beginners #178: There are never ever guarantees.)

I am, obviously, pleased.

Details at Deadline Hollywood.

On Arriving

And then you're somewhere else working with brand new people and wondering how the hell that happened.

The obvious companion to my previous post, what happens when you come to a new publisher?

I haven't a fucking clue.

I've never done this before.

But my books have a new home. A very new home. They will be residing at Little Brown's brand new imprint MULHOLLAND BOOKS.

Spearheaded by my new editor John Schoenfelder, Mulholland will specialize in thrillers of all genres. This makes it a natural...

On Leaving

What you want is to have everything work out the first time.

Life could be miraculously easy if every time you tried to make something happen the way you wanted it to happen it would actually just happen fucking brilliantly.

Could get tedious, but I doubt it.

And, news flash, seems that's not the way it happens.

For several years now many good people at Ballantine, Random House, and Del Rey have worked very hard to get my books into the hands of more people. They have, time and again, expressed ...