E.R. Torre's Blog, page 108

Thinking of Manchester…

Truly there are no words to convey the depths of my sadness for what happened there yesterday.

The individual -I truly don’t want to write his name- is nothing more than a very broken coward.  To target mostly teen and pre-teen girls going to a concert… its beyond the pale.

My deepest and most sincere condolences.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) a (mildly) belated review

Call the Resident Evil films  one of my guilty pleasures.  There are, with the one I’m about to review here, six of them.  Arguably that’s at least three too many and yet…

I dunno.

I dig ’em.

Having said that, I’d also be the last person in the world to argue these movies represent some kind of high water mark in the annals of actions/suspense/horror cinema.  Indeed, the second to last film in the series, Resident Evil: Retribution, I thought apart from an interesting setting proved to be pretty bad.

However, the first two films in the series, Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse, were, again in my opinion, quite good at delivering on the promise of action and suspense along with apocalyptic zombie related gore.

Almost all these films were written and/or directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, whose wife happens to be , the movies’ star.

So, after all these years, what do I think of the supposed “final chapter” in this series?

I think its a decent enough film that never swings too high nor falls too low, which is something of a shame as I wish I could say this was a truly brilliant send of to this series and Ms. Jovovich in what is arguably her best known role.

The movie opens with Alice (Jovovich) emerging into a devastated Washington D.C. and facing off against some of the nasties that now reside there.  Soon, she is contacted by the enigmatic A.I. which has alternately helped and hindered her.  In this case the A.I. tells her she must return to Racoon City, where this whole mess started, and release a chemical which will neutralize the man-made virus that devastated the world. (Most of this is found in the video I’ve embedded below)

Only problem is that Alice carries this virus within her and while it hasn’t made her a zombie like all the others -in fact, it may have made her the bad-ass super-hero she is- if she releases the counter-toxin, she will likely die along with all the other zombies.

I won’t give away too much more of the story -not that there is all that much more story to give away- but Alice meets at least one old friend along the way back and, together, they face off against another pair of old foes.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter does feel like a conclusion of sorts even though the film’s makers couldn’t quite bring themselves to ending it all.  There is wiggle room for another chapter in the saga though news of a “new” Resident Evil film series (you can read about that here) indicates that perhaps this might well be the last rodeo for Alice and her particular company.

If this is the case, this six film series was, at least to me, a pleasant enough diversion while it lasted.  Even if these works were never quite classics, they were entertaining and, sometimes, that’s the best you can hope for in a movie.

So, I raise a toast to Ms. Jovovich’s ass-kicking Alice.

If this is the last we’ll see of you, it’s been a fun ride.

Once again…with feeling…

Finally got a few minutes to myself and realized its been a full week since I last posted.

Wow.

I said things would get busy but, honestly, I didn’t think they’d get that busy.

One more week to go and things should get back to normal so, once again, my apologies for the dearth of posts!

Sgt. Pepper’s at 50…

While there are those who would argue which of The Beatles’ albums was their very best (I’ve heard more than a few state it was Revolver), I suspect few will argue Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is their most famous/well known album.

Personally, I love almost everything about the album, though there are a few songs on it that… well, they may not be quite as good as some of the others.

This year, Sgt. Pepper’s reaches a milestone, having been released an incredible 50 years ago.  To celebrate the occasion, new releases of the album are being unveiled, many offering a very intimate look at the creative process by giving us early “takes” of the many songs.  These collections, it should be noted, will be going for some mighty big bucks, should you want them.

As I was perusing the internet, I stumbled upon this fascinating article by Annie Zaleski for Salon.com which posits the following question:

Sgt. Pepper’s at 50: Was It A Concept Album Or An Identity Crisis?

Many view Sgt. Pepper’s as a concept album -one of the first ever made- but the reality is that apart from the opening chorus, the follow up song A Little Help From My Friends, and the closing chorus, there is little that makes this a concept album, at least when compared to works such as Pink Floyds’ The Wall or The Who’s Tommy or David Bowie’s 1. Outside, each of which tell a story through their songs.

The author of the article points out that John Lennon noted as much, stating his contributions/songs on the album could have easily been in any of the other Beatles albums.

And yet…

Far be it for me to argue with one of the people/musical geniuses behind the album, but I feel Sgt. Pepper’s is a concept album.

A very loose one, I grant you, but a concept album nonetheless.

It starts as a concert, then we have each of the fictional members of the band give us their song, culminating in the concluding Sgt. Pepper’s reprise and, because we’re getting a concert, of course it’s followed by an encore (A Day In The Life).

Unlike other concept albums, there is no “big” overarching story here, except for the ones within each of the individual songs themselves, yet to me Sgt. Pepper’s is ultimately a role-playing concert performed by The Beatles, who by that point could no longer tour.  They couldn’t do so because audiences simply drowned out their music/singing and things were too dangerous.

So with Sgt. Pepper’s, The Beatles offer a simple, elegant concept, that of them doing a concert and giving fans their latest songs.

A simple idea, but a concept nonetheless.

The album, in my opinion, deserves very much being considered one of The Beatles’ greatest albums, even if one may like Revolver a little bit more…

About the dearth of posts…

Just came back from a very much needed vacation, though I’m now stuck doing extra work -more than usual- the next couple of weeks so I’ll be posting but it might not be quite as daily as it usually is.

We’ll see!

Regardless, great to be back.

On Writing: What to write and your first work…

It seems an obvious thing, but if you’re interested in writing something, what do you write?

The obvious answer should be similar to everything else regarding you as a person: Write what you like.

If you’re into science fiction, write science fiction.  If you’re into mystery, write mysteries.  Ditto with romances, biographies, young adult, children, or how-to tomes.

Having said that, I suspect there are those who pursue genres or book types which are popular, as well.  I’m hopeful they’re a minority, but who knows.

So you want to be a writer of, say, mysteries, and you wonder what you need to do to come up with your story.

The first step in the process, should you have reached the point where you want to write mystery novels, is to read plenty of mystery novels.  You see what works and, sometimes even more importantly, what does not work in other mystery novels/stories.

You analyze what excites you about them, what, for lack of a better term, “tickles your fancy”.

The next step is to start writing.  And you write and write and write and, eventually –hopefully!– you’ve written that first novel.

Then what?

There is a story, very likely apocryphal, that upon writing his first novel Ernest Hemingway threw it in the trash and got to work on his next book.

The fact of the matter is that whatever you write first, whatever it may be, is likely not going to be all that great.

Understand, there certainly is a possibility the novel or story you write is a good one.

But let’s be real here: Just because you decide to go to the track one day and run a lap or two, it doesn’t mean you’re suddenly the heavy favorite to win the 500 meter race in the next Olympics.

So write that first novel as best as you can.  Pour your heart into it and revise it and polish it and try to make it the very best thing you can.

Then, you have to find the moment to abandon it.

I’m not saying you should throw it away and use the experience gained to write your second novel.  What I’m saying is that as important as starting a novel is, it is almost just as important to find the time to finish your work on it.

I know what I talk of!

Haze, wasn’t the first story I wrote but it was my first attempt at an honest to goodness novel.

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Writing the book proved a brutal but ultimately very rewarding experience.

Of all the books I’ve written since, one of the biggest lessons learned from writing Haze is that you need to focus on what is important in the story and not get too consumed with page or word counts.

In the book’s early incarnations, there was an awful lot of stuff going on in the book’s first act, stuff that over time I realized didn’t add much to the story and, worse, kept readers from getting to the good stuff.

The writing of this novel turned from my finding how to create a story to my learning what was important in telling that story versus what was extraneous.

It took me years to figure this out.

In between, I left the book for a while and devoted time to writing other stories and plotting other novels.  I worked and worked while Haze sat in a drawer and on my hard drive.  Now and again I would return to it, having gained more experience over time, and revise it.

I can’t say how many times I’ve revised that book, but I suspect it was far more than my usual 10-12 revisions of a novel.

And that’s another thing that experience teaches you.  I’ve come to realize that my first 1-3rd draft of a novel is usually where I’m putting ideas down, sometimes out of order or presented in a word salad.  If I have a notion for a scene and I’m not certain about where it will go in the book, I may just write a description and highlight it and go about writing whatever else needs to be written.

In time, I have that first “full” draft of the book and from that point on the polishing starts.  I go over the novel to make sure I’ve accounted for every action, that I’ve explained why things occur and how.  I make sure everything is clear.

The last three or four drafts of my latest novel are inevitably devoted to grammar and syntax.  I make sure everything is spelled right and that there be as few typos as possible.

And once I’m done, it’s off to the next book.

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it again: Writing is not an easy thing to do.  It requires considerable work and, as should be obvious by what I wrote above, considerable patience and effort.

But if I can do it, anyone can!

Really…?

Found this article by Rhett Jones over on Gizmodo.com…

Popular YouTuber gets arrested for “Prank” removal of real Stop signs

You read the headline of the article right: It concerns an individual whose name I’d rather not mention who likes to record “Pranks” he performs and posts them on YouTube.

So our Brain Surgeon decides it would be very funny to dress up like a road crew and remove two neighborhood Stop signs, then film cars go through the area without stopping.

For his efforts at hilarity, our Brain Surgeon was arrested and, according to the article, he is now asking his various subscribers for donations for his legal fund.

I dunno.  I feel like one of those old foggies who wave their finger to the young ‘uns and say “What were you thinking?”

What this man did wasn’t a prank.  What he did was a dangerous act which could easily have resulted in vehicular damage or, far worse, injury or death to people.

Incredible.

 

Got an iPhone?

Then check out this article, written by Heather Kelly and presented on CNN.com:

What to expect with the iPhone 8

The subheadline states:

Tim Cook probably wishes people were a little less excited about the next iPhone.

In other words, don’t expect a revolutionary new phone.  It would appear those days are over -for now anyway- and every new iteration of the iPhone looks to have incremental changes, including lighter weight, better processors, better cameras, etc.

Just don’t expect anything revolutionary.

On Writing: Success, Part Deux

Yesterday I wrote about the ingredients needed to make a novel a blockbuster success.

Of course, the various ingredients are as follows:

1. Who the hell knows?

Having said that, there are things one can do to ensure they at least have the chance of succeeding in the writing business.  But be aware, the dreams of being independently wealthy off your writings must be met with the cold hard reality of the number of books you’re going to be competing against.

According to Bowker, there are a little over 1 million books released each year.  Want to get even more depressed?  Steven Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, offers the following depressing…

10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing

I won’t go over everything Mr. Piersanti writes, but suffice it to say there are two very big truths regarding books today: 1) The market is oversaturated and 2) Because of this your novel will face very long odds getting any –any– recognition.

So what’s a poor book writer to do?

Keep working… at least as long as it is economically feasible.  Look, I’m like most writers out there.  My dream was/is to be successful at what I do and, hopefully, be able to live off my work.  In the years I’ve been doing this I’ve managed to sell books and have had positive reactions to them but, like everyone else, I’m competing with a tremendously large market.  I happen to have enough financial security -and whatever free time I can carve out of the day- to work on my novels.

However, if you’re facing financial difficulties, you absolutely need to take care of that.  If it means putting aside your writing dreams, you have to do this.  Find the free time to follow those dreams after you work and after you get money to pay rent and groceries.

In other words, set your priorities straight.

Now here comes a bit of very hard news:  If and when you get your novel done and you manage to get it released, either through a “professional” imprint or independently, DO NOT expect the world to beat down your door to proclaim you the next Stephen King.  In fact, you should expect the exact opposite, that the world will by and large ignore your baby.

Don’t be angered by this reaction!

Again, you’ve just released one novel of over a million in a year.  What you should do is figure out a strategy to advertise the book, do this, and then get to work on your next novel.  Then your next, then your next.

I suspect new readers will feel far more comfortable investing in an author with many works -and hopefully some positive reviews of said book(s)- under their belt versus someone who releases a single book.

Again, don’t be discouraged but approach the writing business soberly.

You may be the one in a million writer who shatters that very high ceiling and your book may become a sensation.  This is possible and it has happened to others.

However, don’t count on it.

Writing is hard work and success, like in so many other fields, is not guaranteed.

On Writing: Success!

One of my favorite quotes regarding the movie making business, and one which I have mentioned before, is by noted screenwriter William Goldman.  Mr. Goldman wrote the screenplay for such classic films as Harper, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All The President’s Men, and Princess Bride, among many others.

In his 1982 book Adventures In The Screen Trade and referring to making a “successful” film, Mr. Goldman famously wrote:

Nobody knows anything.

He elaborated:

Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for certain what’s going to work.  Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.

This applies, to my mind, to almost all forms of art.  David Bowie had a spectacular music career.  He first hit it big with the release of the single “Space Oddity” in 1969, which happened to coincide with NASA getting the first man on the Moon.

However, his subsequent albums didn’t do all that much and there was the thought that he was a “one hit wonder”.  He would release a full album that year, Space Oddity, which included the single but other than that one song didn’t do all that much.  The next year and in 1970 he would release what I consider his first great album, The Man Who Sold the World, and that album went absolutely nowhere.  His next album, Hunky Dory, was released in 1971 and to many this is the first “real” David Bowie album.  The album featured the successful song “Changes” but it too wasn’t as huge of a success as what came next: 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars.

It was that album which made David Bowie a superstar and, over the years, people realized both The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory were indeed pretty damn good albums as well.

However… what if Mr. Bowie hadn’t released Ziggy Stardust?  What if the record company gave up on him following the so-so success of his first three full albums?

Moving into literature, what makes a successful novel?

Why, for example, have the Harry Potter novels become a literary mega-success while other young adult novels featuring magic -there are plenty to choose from!- haven’t?

Why did Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn’s incredibly successful third novel, hit a nerve in readers and sell like crazy and result in a successful movie adaptation while her previous book, Dark Places, didn’t do quite as well?  Sure, the success of Gone Girl resulted in an uptick sales for Dark Places and a movie was eventually made of it starring Charlize Theron and yet… when one thinks of Gillian Flynn, one doesn’t think of Dark Places, one thinks of Gone Girl.

Looking more broadly, why did Fifty Shades of Gray succeed so wildly while so many other works of erotica have not?  Why are the works of H. P. Lovecraft today looked upon as horror classics yet during his lifetime Mr. Lovecraft barely made enough money on them to survive?  Why did Stieg Larsson’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo become such a huge worldwide hit?  Was the novel really that great or was the tragedy behind the novel’s creation -the fact that the author died before it was released- what made people curious to buy it and its two sequels?

The answer is… unknown.

Nobody knows anything.

You can write a truly great novel and find people really, really love it.  You can write something people hate.  You can get plenty of positive reviews and ratings or be slammed with negative ratings.  Worse than that, your book might engender indifferent reactions.

Your novel does well.  Or decently.  Or poorly.

You may wonder why, but its pointless to do so.  There is no explanation for a success.  Hopefully, it is because your book was well written but it could be because it featured an intriguing topic presented at the right time.

There are plenty of famous authors out there who have sold a ton of books and who many view as poor writers.  I could mention a few right here and right now but what’s the point?  They succeeded and, you know what?  Good for them.  Anything that gets people looking around for books has to be a good thing for every other author, does it not?

Yet you still wonder: Why did these works succeed?  Why did others that you feel deserved better did not?

Nobody knows anything.

Least of all me.

The bottom line is this: As a writer, write what you like.  Write about things you as a reader would like to read.  Hope for the best but, if the work doesn’t succeed, don’t feel all is lost.  Perhaps your second book… or your third… or your tenth… will finally get you the audiences you long for.

Even if it doesn’t, be proud of what you leave behind.  Do the best you can with the tools you have and don’t worry about the success.

Leave behind a legacy.  Leave behind something you’ll be proud of.

In the end, there is no magic formula for success.  If there were, the world would be an awfully boring place.