All over the place...again.

Like many writers, I often battle a form of ADD when it comes to what I am writing.  And right now I am in the throes of yet another fight.  On the one hand, I have a research paper that is due next week.  I am making slow progress on it in the evenings, but it will be a challenge to get it to the required length.  I probably should have picked a better topic.  Oh, well.  Too late now.  And I have also registered for my next class, which starts in October.  I'm apparently a glutton for academic punishment.

Then there's the fact that playing HALO 3 on my xBox inspired me to start reading the novels, which in turn inspired me to start writing some military sci-fi of my own again.  Today, my attention seems to be focused on that.  I have already laid down nearly 500 words, and am only halfway through the scene I want to finish.  I'm taking some old, discarded ideas, and mashing them together to form a new one.  I do that a lot, actually.  But, I guess a lot of writers do.

Yesterday, my writing brain went to some heated social issues, and I felt compelled to write a short essay on one of them.  This essay will only be seen by a few people because it is a volatile subject, and I know that some people I consider close friends would be offended by it.  So, I will keep it mostly private, and chalk it up to ineffectual ranting.

Last night my friend Ken called me (just as I was sitting down to a few minutes of HALO...he has a knack for doing that), and we chatted a bit about writing.  Ken is one of the friends that I am attempting to put together an Sword & Sorcery anthology with, based on an original shared world.  We discussed that briefly, and I had to admit that I hadn't made any progress on it in a while. 

We also discussed ePublishing.  Ken is writing a serial of eShorts about an adolescent vampire that is really good.  But he is having a hard time finding an audience for it.  We're pretty sure that the target demographic (the Twi-hard crowd) has too short of an attention span for serialized stories.  he's considering pulling the stories he has, combining them and finishing the larger story, and republishing it as an eNovel.  I think that's his best bet, honestly.

And speaking of ePublishing, I am finally putting up another story for Kindle.  I had published THE ORC WAY (a sequel of sorts to PEKRA) last night, after laboring over the cover image.  But this morning, I realized I had made a formatting error, and the thing looks awkward in places.  So, I unpublished it, and corrected the errors, as well as made some content edits today.  Tonight, I will rework the cover image, since I am not all that happy with how it turned out, and try to republish it again.  I'll make an announcement tomorrow when it is available.

And finally there is the Sword & Planet story for Scott Oden's newest anthology idea.  I had made great progress on it, going so far as to write a complete synopsis (something I am only now learning how to do), and working through the first couple of scenes.  However, it seemed overly long for the 10k word limit, so I had cut a huge chunk out of the middle.  I sent it to Scott, and asked his opinions.  He said it could be 10k words, if written right.  But his main concern was that it wasn't very S&P, and seemed more like S&S or Alternate History.  It was then that I realized that all of the S&P elements (superscience technology, non-human races) were in the part that I had cut out!  Ugh.  back to the drawing board.  Now I'm not sure if I should rework the story, or just start over with something new.

Over on the personal front, my 17-year old daughter went back to Vegas last weekend.  I already miss her.  But the good news (unrelated to her leaving) is that we are trying to buy a house.  If we get the one we like, I will finally have room for a library and writer's den!  WOOHOO!!

Top Five Sci Fi films

Once again, Charles Gramlich has inspired a post (though this time he flat out suggested it). The subject of his own post was top movies of all time, and then broken down into sub-categories. He focused on Sci Fi, which I love, so I will also.

However, in thinking about this, I have come to the conclusion that I need to set a couple of rules for myself. Mainly because I am a Moviephile, and any list of “favorites” or “Top #” will invariably be longer than intended, and will certainly be missing entries that didn’t pop into my mind until later.

Rule #1 – Trilogies and Series count as one entry. When you see my list, this will make more sense. Suffice it to say, when a movie spawns sequels that are inter-related with the original, it’s often (but not always) hard for me to separate them and judge them as individual movies. I prefer to judge the whole story presented.

Rule #2 – This list represents what I think as of right now, and is subject to change on a whim. More than likely, there will be other entries that will make me slap my forehead for forgetting later.

Ok, so here’s my list:

5. Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick – Though only slightly interrelated, these two movies relate a story about some really interesting characters. Riddick is one of the coolest characters out there. And Pitch Black was a sci fi/horror film that I consider on par with Alien. Then they took those same characters and progressed them into a whole new film style, expanding on the universe. I love these films. And I am stoked to know that they are planning a third film.

4. Firefly/Serenity – Like many of my favorite films and TV shows, this property is highly character-driven. I think there is a little of everyone in at least one of the characters. Wash’s fate was definitely one of the most shocking moments in non-horror film history for me. This is also one of those “genre benders.” It really was a space-western (the first aired episode was about a train robbery, if I recall).

3. 2010 (The year we make contact) – Though the prophetic title and premise didn’t quite pan out, this movie still stands as a very gritty, realistic sci-fi film. Aside from having the ever-cool Roy Scheider in the starring role, the film introduced scientific principles and scenarios that make you wonder what the future holds for us. And, let’s face it, HAL is about as creepy-cool as you can get. I still get geeked out when I see a reference to him in another movie. This is one of those instances where I thought the sequel was better than the original film. 2001 was great, but the last half hour of it seemed drag on, and was a bit too “trippy” for my tastes.

2. Star Trek (II, III, IV & VI) – I remember developing a love of all things Star Trek when I was about 13 years old. Just prior to III coming out, I met one of my all-time best friends, who was a huge Trekkie (a term I personally carry with pride). We would sit and discuss the movies, the show and the technology of Star Trek. When taken together, II, III and IV tell a complete story arc, that includes some of the best dialogue in ST history…

Kirk: (Giving the Vulcan hand greeting) How many fingers am I holding up?

McCoy: That’s not very damn funny.

…as well as having my all-time favorite Klingon character, Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd). Star Trek VI, I felt, was a fine capstone on the whole TOS era, and though I like Generations well enough, I’d have been happy with ending it on that note.

And of course…KHAAAANNN!!!!!

1. Star Wars (Eps. IV, V & VI) – The original trilogy. This is one instance where, had Lucas stopped with the very first film, it would have been wonderful. And the other two (even with any shortcomings) really only added to the overall awesomeness that is Star Wars. I saw it twice in the theatre when it first came out (I was 6 when the original was released) and I was immediately in love. My personal favorite of the three has always been The Empire Strikes Back, and it alternated with Conan the Barbarian as the “Movie most likely to be playing in the background” in my room at any given time. I’m not a huge fan of the prequel trilogy, though I do like certain parts of all three (and I know I am in the minority when I say that I didn’t find Jar Jar all that annoying, beyond the amount he was supposed to be). And, on any given day, I prefer the Originals.

At various points in my life I have carried the monikers of Conan-Fanboy, Trekkie (or Trekker), Comic Book Geek, and Dragonlancer. But my first sci-fi/fantasy love will always exist “A long, long time ago…in a galaxy far away.”

Honorable mentions:

Demolition Man (had to get a Sly reference in here somewhere)

Total Recall

Aliens

The Road Warrior

The Matrix