Dan Harris's Blog, page 7
November 1, 2013
REALLIFE, WRITERLIFE and Tom Hiddleston
Hey, look – I’m really nailing this one-post-every-seven-weeks plan. Keep ‘em keen, that’s what I always say.
It’s not, of course. It’s just that WRITERLIFE has been frustratingly derailed by REALLIFE for the last few months. A lot of it’s been good stuff, like moving from Brazil to D.C. and settling into our sweet new apartment, but a fair chunk has been being stupidly busy at the day job. (Which has even been a night job sometimes over the last month. The telecoms software game isn’t all champagne and supermodels, I tells ya.)
But that’s enough of my grumbling. You’re here for superhero movie trailers and sweet, sweet hyperlinkage to stuff wot you should read. Some of you even care about when my next book is going to be out! Thanks to everyone who’s pestered me about that. It’s wonderful that you’re keen to read it, even as I apologetically mumble that no, it’s not going to be this year, but I’m damn sure going to try to get it out before the one-year anniversary of Venus Rising. If I can’t knock out a book a year, then something’s gone wrong. I’m not Fran Lebowitz, here.
So. Let’s get it on.
It’s November 1st! And in the world of indie authorship, that can mean only two things: drinking even more than normal to build up fat stores for winter, and NaNoWriMo. While I will sadly be unable to bang out a 50K word novel draft in the next thirty days (without a device that magically extends the day to 47 hours and removes my need for sleep) many of you may be pondering taking a crack at it. Tor.com have some success stories from authors who took the plunge to great effect. Good stuff.
Stewart. Mckellen. Mcavoy. Fassbender. The new X-Men movie, Days of Future Past, looks BADASS.
Tom Hiddleston does Owen Wilson does Loki. FANTASTIC. I wish Tom Hiddleston was my friend.
More Tom Hiddleston!
Jim Jarmusch’s wry, tender and moving take on the vampire genre features Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as a centuries-old couple who watch time go by from separate continents as they reflect on the ever-changing world around them.
Star Wars: Episode VII might slip out, and is generally having some problems. Given how ‘meh’ the recent trilogy was I can’t bring myself to care about this very much, but having said that if the new movie – whenever it arrives – turns out to be good, I’ll happily reboard the Star Wars bandwagon.
September 20, 2013
I’m Reading Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ And I Have No Idea What It’s About
Yet, I should say. Grabbed you with that controversial headline, though, didn’t I? Hopefully some of King’s many fans rushed here to defend his work in my comments section. (Hi!)
But no–I’m talking about the rare and happy occurrence of starting to read, watch or otherwise consume a book, movie, TV show or other art with absolutely no idea of what the story is about. Because how often does that happen these days?
I’ve heard of The Stand, obviously. I know some people think it’s King’s best book, and that others insist it’s overwrought, overblown, and in need of a good editor. I know that my mum started watching the TV adaptation some years back and gave up a few episodes in.
And that’s all I knew when I saw a copy on the shelf of the second-hand bookstore two blocks away from the new apartment in Washington, D.C. into which Mrs. Dan and I recently moved, priced at what seemed like a bargain $3.00. (The book, not the apartment. They run a little dearer than that.)
“Stephen King for three dollars? And it’s a thick one,” thought I. Thumbed it open. “Small print, too. This’ll keep me going for a while.” Closed the book again, looked at the cover. ‘The Complete and Uncut Edition’, it says, and the brief foreword promised 150,000 words, or 500 pages, more story than the already lengthy version that was originally published.
No blurb on the back cover, no clue to the story. Just a black and white photo of an unsmiling King from twenty-odd years ago. And on the cover, a figure on horseback wielding a scythe.
“Well, people are going to die in it, I can tell that much.” And I paid my money, and I took my new book home.
It doesn’t actually matter what The Stand is about, and I won’t risk robbing anyone of the same experience I’ve had by describing it. But it did make me think a little about what we’ve lost in this age of constant, immediate, instantaneous media. We’re flooded with trailers, reviews, articles and blogs, each movie studio or television network desperate to shove their product in front of our eyeballs, and a million other internet denizens waiting to pronounce it good, or bad, or simply broadcast that it exists.
God forbid if you haven’t seen the latest episode of Breaking Bad because you’re planning to watch it later. You’d better stay off the internet until you do. (And just to be on the safe side, don’t go to work either.)
We buy books and movies because we read reviews, and plot teasers, and friends tell us “Dude, you have to watch My New Favourite Show. It’s about this geography teacher from Arizona who has Alzheimer’s but becomes a Mafia don in New Jersey before faking his own death and joining the Baltimore police force. It’s fantastic. Netflix it. I’m on season eight.”
I loved The Avengers. And I’m already pretty damn excited about the sequel. So far all I know is it’s coming out in May 2015, and someone or something called Ultron is in it, but I’m sketchy enough on my Avengers canon that I don’t know what that is. But I guarantee that by late April 2015, I’ll know exactly who stars in the movie, who all the new characters are, what Ultron is, and will have seen four different trailers containing 90% of the best scenes from the film. Because I’m weak, and I won’t be able to help myself.
But wouldn’t it be nice, just once, to not have those teasers, those tasters, the constant little dribbles of information that leak out and draw us in? To go back to finding out about a film by seeing a poster for it on the side of a bus stop two weeks before it came out? Or discovering a great new TV show by flicking through channels one night and being gripped by a great scene? Or discovering a new book not by browsing a list of what customers who bought that item also bought, but by wandering into a second-hand bookshop that you didn’t even know was there and just picking one up off the shelf?
You can still do that last one, at least. And you should, I highly recommend it. Because, you see, The Stand is about–
September 19, 2013
Making sense of the KWL terms and conditions
Reblogged from Kobo Writing Life:
All KWL authors received an email recently regarding a small change to the terms & conditions of the KWL agreement which will be in effect Oct 17, 2013. Here’s a quick plain-English rundown of what those changes are and why we’ve made them.
The Kobo Writing Life team is constantly on the lookout for ways to help you succeed, and that means keeping an eye on trends and valuable high-end data.
Just a quick reblog for the benefit of any other authors who received an email about Kobo's new Ts and Cs, and couldn't work out what had actually changed. Ahem.
September 17, 2013
Anakin Vader
This is the best.
‘Vader–’
‘But I wanna go, I wanna do it! It’s what I’ve always dreamed of doing! Can I go? Can I go? Can I–’
‘Enough of this!’
‘Awwwwww.’
September 16, 2013
September 10, 2013
Riddick. Riddick! RIDDIIIIIIICK!
Riddick‘s out now. Grantland posted a wonderful primer on the series, the character, and one Mr. V. Diesel, which is well worth a read.
I love Pitch Black. It’s one of my favourite SF films of all time. Partly because of the minimal ensemble cast of almost unknown actors, partly the stark harshness (harsh starkness?) of the desert and the contrast between blazing day and total night, and partly the grungy lo-fi, low-budget vibe.
But mainly because: Riddick. Intergalactic badass with surgically shined eyes, the wits and moves of an alpha predator, and not a single sleeved shirt.
“Hello, ladies. You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”
Then four years later came Chronicles of Riddick, a sequel with the kind of grandiose title that made me immediately worried it was going to be a completely different kind of movie. And it was, and it was objectively pretty bad – incomprehensible plot, lots of Royal Shakespeare Company-trained actors hamming it up massively, including Judi Dench (!) – but I still enjoyed it.
Because, you know – Riddick. Who (spoiler alert for a nine year old film!) ended up being emperor of the galaxy! Somehow. Maybe? I’m still not clear. He’s king of the Necromongers, at least! (Ugh.)
The closest we’ll ever get to seeing Khal Drogo on the Iron Throne, basically.
And now, those nine years later, Riddick’s back, and this time – judging by the eponymous titling of the film – it’s personal. I’m trying to avoid reading too much about the movie so I don’t spoiler myself, but I do know he’s not the king of anybody anymore. And the brief synopsis on IMDB sounds remarkably familiar:
Left for dead on a sun-scorched planet, Riddick finds himself up against an alien race of predators.
Pitch Black 2, ladies and gentlemen! I can’t wait.
August 23, 2013
“The 7 Most Common Misconceptions About Science Fiction Publishing” from io9
Worth a read for any writers aspiring to be published by Tor, Orbit et al. Prepare to have your illusions shattered! (Maybe.)
2) When you’ve published a book, you’re immediately a famous author
Often it seems as though people believe that “as soon as you’ve had a book published you’ve made it somehow,” says Jonathan Oliver with Solaris Publishing. In reality, “it can take a long time to build up a profile as a writer and, unless you’re immensely lucky, your first published novel isn’t immediately going to shoot you into stardom and untold wealth. You don’t just write a book and rest on your laurels. You build up a reputation one book at a time.”
Yup, much like being a recovering alcoholic, becoming a famous author is a long process. Full piece here.
August 17, 2013
I’m Baaaaaaack
[Silence. After a few moments, footsteps are heard. Faintly at first, but then louder as they approach. A man appears from stage left. His stride stutters for a moment as he glances toward the darkened auditorium, but he gathers himself and steps confidently to the microphone.]
*cough*
[He taps the microphone twice. Feedback whines through the auditorium's speaker system, and the man winces. He moistens his lips and peers out at the shadowed space where the audience might be.]
“So. I’ve… been away for a while.”
Silence.
“I don’t know if anybody’s out there, but… well. Let’s just pick up where we left off, shall we?”
Omni, a seminal SF magazine that I’d never heard of until just now, is coming back after a fifteen-year hiatus. And to celebrate they’ve published some wonderful artwork of Frank Herbert’s Dune universe. It’s really marvelous:
Article at io9, full collection here.
Also at io9, it seems that Earth might not be a planet, if for some reason you decide to make that definition include ‘dominates the other bodies orbiting that start’. To which one commenter replies:
‘i can see this the other way around. if i define planet as “a hard surface i can land on, walk on, maneuver on”… then i say we have 4 planets and 4 big ass balls of gas’
Which seems about right to me.
The last book of the Malazan Empire, Ian Cam Esslemont’s Assail, is coming out in March 2014. That seems like quite a long way away… which is a blessing, as I’ve just realised I’ve not read the last book, Blood and Bone, yet. (Makes note.)
Ooh, this is a good one. Tor.com have started a series called Story Worlds, written by a chap called Brad Kane, who says:
‘Story Worlds is a series about storytelling and world-building in film TV, books, games, and more. Congrats: you’ve arrived for the first installment! In future weeks, I’ll be visiting many “story worlds” from every popular medium and genre and exploring what makes them memorable. For today, I thought I’d start with a simple question: why do stories even matter?’
The first installment introduces the series, then there’s a two-parter on–of course–The Lord of the Rings. Great stuff. (Part one, part two.)
Apparently there’s a debate… well, maybe not raging, but percolating, about whether the sublime Breaking Bad is science fiction. Because it’s fiction, and it’s about science, so… yeah. Sorry guys, you’ve missed with this one. Wide right.
But we can all agree that the show being back is like Christmas in August, and enjoy that someone took the time to animate the scene from the final season premiere where Badger outlines his Star Trek script.
And last, but best: Malcolm Tucker is Doctor Who. Here’s the entirely unoffical and EXTREMELY PROFANE trailer.
It’s enough to make me watch the show again.
“That’s all, folks. I’ll have another book for you soon, I promise. So… bye.”
[The man takes a step back from the microphone, and squints at the darkness once again, trying to discern any life or movement out there. He shakes his head slightly. As he turns to leave the stage, a faint voice calls out querulously from the audience. 'You forgot to talk about Man of Steel. You posted seventeen trailers for it, then nothing.' The man turns back, looking sheepish.]
“Ah, yeah. Um… I actually haven’t seen it yet.’
July 12, 2013
USA! USA! And So On, And So Forth
“So where have you been, Dan? You haven’t blogged in a couple of weeks, and Ascension Point hasn’t been on sale for aaaaaaaaages.”
Didn’t you hear? I was moving to the US.
That’s right–after three years in sunny, rainy, brilliant and baffling Brazil, Mrs. Dan and I have relocated to the land of the free and the home of the restaurant portion that’s 50% larger than it really needs to be. We’re in Brooklyn, NY for a few weeks before we head off to our new long term home, the nation’s capital: Washington, West Virginia.
Hang on, that doesn’t look right. It’s the other one, isn’t it?
So–give me another couple of weeks to get settled in, and normal service will resume. I’ll finally crack on with the next installment of The Unity Sequence, tentatively titled Causal Nexus. The first five chapters have been done for ages, and the outline’s there. Just need to get my head down and write the bloody thing.
Oh, and I can get back to my regular schedule of reposting io9 articles. I know how much you all like those.
Later, folks.
June 28, 2013
More Profane, Wonderful Advice from Mr. Chuck Wendig
I’m back from vacation, sporting a charming ‘tan’ in my classic shade, which I like to call ‘subtle lobster’. While catching up on what I’d missed from my usual writing and publishing blogs, I came across this gem from Chuck Wendig, ‘50 RANTYPANTS SNIDBITS OF RANDOM WRITING & STORYTELLING ADVICE‘.
1. SNAP YOUR TRAP AND WRITE SOME SHIT
Stop talking about writing. Stop reading about writing. Stop dreaming about writing. Stop doing things that don’t qualify as writing. The thing that defines a writer is that the writer writes.
14. YOU’RE YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY
If you’re not writing, that’s your fault. It’s not anybody else’s. It’s not your wife’s fault. Not your Mom’s fault. Not your kid’s fault. It isn’t because of a job, or Big Six publishing, or Amazon, or a Muse, or Writer’s Block. You might as well blame a Yeti (who acted in collusion with a cabal of randy leprechauns). It’s all on you. Accept responsibility. Stop complaining. Fix your shit.
29. SLOW YOUR ROLL, SPEEDY MCGEE
Embody patience. The worst thing you can do for your story is pull it out of the oven before it’s done cooking. Don’t quit early. Don’t publish thirty seconds after you typed the last word. Don’t query a stinker. Stories — like wine, brisket, romance and bondage games — need time.
Writer types: Go read the other forty-seven.
