Pat Griffith's Blog, page 13

This Blog Is Gluten Free

Isn’t it nice when companies tell you something obvious? Especially when they get on the current bandwagon of whatever fad we are trying to convince ourselves will make us happier, richer, or at least, reduce our carbon foot print.

Who is putting gluten in the chocolate and ice cream anyways?! Don’t tell me broccoli is fat free- that is half the reason we eat it (except for the butter part.)  If it occurs in nature then you don’t need to mention there is no transfats.

That kind of stuff drives me nuts. It’s insincere to make claims for things that don’t truly pertain to your product. Ugh!

Ender's Game

February 2008. I went from one used book store to the next and could not find a single, beat up copy of Ender’s Game.

A fellow student in one of my writing classes had recommended that I read it (three years prior) and now it was on my brain it and nowhere to be found. The fact that I could not find it used anywhere told me it was probably okay to buy brand new, so I did, and it wasn’t the first time.

I read it in February, then again in April, and I think in October and December too. I read Ender’s Game at least once a year. I found it in the regular sci-fi section, but the cool versions are always in the young adult section. [I’m not usually a fan of adults reading young adult books, but a good book is a good book no matter what the target demographic is.]

As a writer I always try to figure out what makes a book work. Why do people love certain worlds and not others? Orson Scott Card has accomplished two things with Ender’s Game. He does a really good job at keeping you riveted through Ender’s personal trials and dilemmas. And of course Ender himself is the big draw. His inner struggles, while trying to grow up under such and extreme and intense environment is done so well. It rings true. As if growing up wasn’t already hard enough, throw on top of that an impending intergalactic war. Geez, talk about raising the stakes. Even though it takes place of several years the pacing is just right.

Ender’s Game is the first of a series. The rest happen when Ender is an adult and I love adult Ender even more than young Ender. Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide are both really excellent. With each book Card wrestles with a different moral question which plays out in the most fascinating ways. Children of Mind you have to read just to see what happens to everyone, but all the really great stuff happens in the first two. There is a fifth book, Ender in Exile, but it was added much later and is really for filling in the gaps in Ender’s growing up.

I will be at the midnight showing of the movie. When I saw Inception and the sequence where they fight in the hallways as it was turning, I thought immediately of the battle room and hoped one day to see this book on the big screen. November 1st is a long ways away.

Forgotten Things

I make notes to myself as things come to me so I don't forget them. However, as I was just cleaning out some of those notes I have found that I have no idea what I meant by it.

EXAMPLE 1: (See picture)
I have no idea who, what, or where is going on here but I am intrigued. These are the kind of finds I love because something is already in progress AND it came from my brain. I don't remember writing this and I have no clue what story, if any, it is tied to. This could be a whole new world I haven't discovered yet. It could be related to Lysandra, but for some reason I don't think it's an Elbie thing. We'll see...

EXAMPLE 2: Animal Instincts
That's it. Nothing else. I wrote in the June 15th. That was a Saturday. Does absolutely nothing to help me figure out what the heck I was telling myself. Since both words a capitalized it must be the title of something. But that is all I have at the moment.

EXAMPLE 3:
139 122
130 129

Written on June 12th. I have not idea what these numbers are related to.

More often than not I do remember why I wrote something down and am glad for it. These kinds of things just show me how vast the space is inside our own heads.

Quotables

Recently, KKL confessed to me that:

                "I may not be crazy when I get old, but I'm will pretend to be."

Finding the Perfect Cover

Sorry I have been a little MIA, neglecting my blog and two websites has to be a punishable offense, but please consider what I have been doing and you will know it's a pretty good excuse.

I have a book cover! Thanks to the most amazing designers over at 99designs. I don't mid telling you that I signed up for the silver package which is $499. For $499 I got 35 designers to submit over 200 designs, all for my book. I work with graphic artists and I know how much they get paid and so I know that $14 a designer is criminal no matter what their level of experience is.

I posted my "contest" on Saturday night and I went to bed. By Sunday morning I had two designers and twelve book covers to rate and comment on. A contest is a mere seven days. And it was a crazy week. I didn't think one week would be enough, but I don't know if I could have gone for much longer. Every time I checked the page there was something new to look at. I spent most of my time giving feedback to people all over the world and seeing what they came up with next.

After the first four days you have to choose only six designers to continue on. I had a few obvious front runners but to fill out my six I had to consider a lot of different things. That;'sNow that I had only the most awesome designs, I could let the artists know what to change and get really specific. This phase was a much slower pace and I got way more sleep.

Then came the day of reckoning. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE. You actually get two weeks to make a final decision and I did not want to agonize that long, nor did I want to leave the six designers in limbo that long. So after many polls, walking from bookstore to bookstore, and soliciting the opinion of many total strangers I have made my choice.

Big WOW San Jose

I had an amazing group of friends who were willing the play dress up with me for the day and we had a blast. Armed with free stickers and modified water guns we hit the floor and well, just started to wander around.

We got to meet some of the Ghostbusters. I was informed by one of the NorCal division members that there is at least one chapter in every state. The guys had their photo taken with a variety of Storm Troopers. There was a 1940's Captain America and Golden Age Aurthur from The Tick. And every Batman villain, lead by the Joker of course, they were pretty good at Guitar Hero. A $10,000 Dalek that was a labor of love and wallet. And Dr. Ian Malcolm who was happy to explain chaos theory to us.

It was a really great day and I am blown away by the love given to me by the amazing people you see here, willing to play along for a little while. Cari, Heather, Jimmy, Joe, and Shannon, you guys are AWESOME.

Fortune Cookie

Sorry it's a little blurry. It says:

Your modesty will shame those with lesser knowledge."

Just what I've always wanted fortune cookie. Midwest fortune cookies are weird.

The Writing Life

I am editing the final showdown now and just found a major flaw in the final scene, one character in two places. So there’s that fix. But something I had done for my re-writing of that scene in particular was to actually have it physically represented. I’m sure it’s a common experience for writer’s is wishing you could try it out in a real world situation. I don't personally know any live action cos players so I did the next best thing. I took action figures and put name tags on them and used household items to mark objects in the area where the action was happening. I found some major physicality issues that way. I’m sure my roommates think I’m a little whacked, but I'm okay with that.

Observation

I’ve noticed that often after kids wake they sort of have this vacant stare. I’m talking about toddlers, mostly 2-5 years old. They don’t respond to you. They just rub their head and blink at you. Sure some adults are like that too, but I think kids are like that because they are trying to figure out where they are.

When you’re a kid you wake up in a different place than where you went to sleep all the time. That almost never happens as an adult and if it does it’s not a good thing. If you wake up in a different place than you were when you went to sleep it probably means you’re in the hospital, jail, or you were so out of if they you have memory loss. Think how disorienting that would be.

I don’t know a thing about cognitive development in children but I’m guessing they haven’t made the connection of traveling in a car with arriving at a new location, they can’t make that leap yet, so it must seem like magic to them. They were at home and now they are at the store, whoa.

Just saying.

Sciku for You

I wrote this after watching Empire Strikes Back on my new DVD.

Leave it alone, Lucas
Why you mess with my Star Wars
Get a new hobby


Boba Fett's voice has been the same my whole life and he has to go and change it to the Australian guy. Not to mention changing the Emperor's hologram message while in the asteroid belt.

HAN SHOT FIRST