I guess I need a catchy name for blog posts that are a bunch of little tidbits. Hmmm.. . .
---I got a nice #followfriday twitter boost from @revolutionsf today. If you haven't checked out their website, do so! They're really trying to make SF, in all forms and permutations, fun AND thoughtful again. Today's Prisoner watercooler chat is a great example of that.
---Our child has fallen asleep before midnight for the SECOND NIGHT IN A ROW, and as soon as this bloggery is committed I am hitting the writing folder. Need to work on the Four Horsemen thing (I'll put up some WIP when I have something intriguing to share) and get a comic idea out of my head. One of the projects I've been developing is a comic book called THE FORCE! (yeah, it needs a better title), which is about a government superhero team full of misfits who turn out to have their own agendas, led by the smartest creature to ever walk the earth, who also has his own plans. I'm trying to combine superhero action with emotional realism, and poke a bit of fun at the genre as well. I have an 18-issue story arc laid out in the most basic terms, but got some great ideas for twists that need to get plunked into the file.
---I've been obsessing over Warren Ellis' latest T-Shirt of the Week. It's just so brutally perfect. Trying to figure out affordability, because with shipping the one I want (2x,charcoal gray) is $30. Grargh. But I love the idea of the shirt itself, and I love the DIY, POD aspect of the project. It shows some of the potential for creative use of the web on your own terms. That last part is so important; maintaining artistic and to some extent financial freedom is one of the more alluring aspects of putting your art and goods out on the web.
---I commented the other day on David Pomerico's post about the future and zombies. Given that I'm writing Aetas Nex, this is a topic near to my interests and to my slightly-swollen heart. Apocalypse and dystopia are great spaces for zombies to arise, and they have a versatility that can be exploited if you're willing to innovate and break a few rules. In the case of Aetas Nex,it becomes obvious that zombies are a symptom of a larger problem, and also themselves a dynamic force. For me, that was key: zombies cannot just all be brainless shamblers. Zombies develop, sometimes in lethal ways, sometimes in ways that are uncomfortable for the regular humans to face. Once they are a part of the world, and also harbingers of something bigger happening, they become more interesting as a subject themselves, and also a dynamic plot device that can throw a lot of surprises at the reader. I think there is still some potential for zombies to be useful in SF, and not just as lurching boogeymen.
And other boogeymen as well, but that is a post for another day.
Showing posts with label tidbitistry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tidbitistry. Show all posts
Friday, November 20, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Because I said I would. . .
. . . even though it's about 12 hours too late!
Prepare for Blogging Tidbit Madness!
1) Writing output was low this week because the family was home. My wife is a Renaissance Faire performer and is on the road some weekends, and recently her father needed some help, so she is with him every other week, which means that I see her and our daughter for about 4 days every two weeks. This is a temporary thing for now, but it means that when they are here I try to concentrate on them and very little writing gets done.
2) However, I did do some organizing, which was great because I found some ideas and writing info in odd places. And I did it while engaging in razzberry contests with my daughter :-).
3) Felicia Day was interviewed by Wired AND Time this week. Quite a coup for an indy web entertainer! She was also on Jimmy Fallon's talk show, so she's getting some heavy press attention for herself and The Guild. I came to watch The Guild rather late (end of Season 2), but it's a great show and, most importantly to me, well-written. The amount of care that goes into the series, and the obvious affinity that Day has for the subject matter, comes through very clearly and makes it even more enjoyable to watch. I like the fact that despite their length each installment feels like a full TV episode. I credit some of that to the combination of concise dialogue and narrative pacing; without musical interludes, random pans of exterior settings, and other fillers that you find in many TV shows, The Guild boils your viewing experience down to the essentials and lets you connect to the moment the characters are experiencing. Without a lot of foreshadowing or extraneous character interaction, you are immediately plunged into the story. That unfiltered, yet down-to-earth, quality gives The Guild its combination of punch and hilarity.
4) It's Steampunk Month at Tor.com. This seems gimmicky, but so far I've enjoyed what they have to offer, including a guest blog from Cherie Priest and a roundup of steampunk animation, including the wonderfully-done The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. I highly recommend it; not only is the story good, but the shadow-puppet animation sets an eerie, crisp visual tone to the tale. It is another good example of how short-form web entertainment can be done professionally and wonderfully.
Prepare for Blogging Tidbit Madness!
1) Writing output was low this week because the family was home. My wife is a Renaissance Faire performer and is on the road some weekends, and recently her father needed some help, so she is with him every other week, which means that I see her and our daughter for about 4 days every two weeks. This is a temporary thing for now, but it means that when they are here I try to concentrate on them and very little writing gets done.
2) However, I did do some organizing, which was great because I found some ideas and writing info in odd places. And I did it while engaging in razzberry contests with my daughter :-).
3) Felicia Day was interviewed by Wired AND Time this week. Quite a coup for an indy web entertainer! She was also on Jimmy Fallon's talk show, so she's getting some heavy press attention for herself and The Guild. I came to watch The Guild rather late (end of Season 2), but it's a great show and, most importantly to me, well-written. The amount of care that goes into the series, and the obvious affinity that Day has for the subject matter, comes through very clearly and makes it even more enjoyable to watch. I like the fact that despite their length each installment feels like a full TV episode. I credit some of that to the combination of concise dialogue and narrative pacing; without musical interludes, random pans of exterior settings, and other fillers that you find in many TV shows, The Guild boils your viewing experience down to the essentials and lets you connect to the moment the characters are experiencing. Without a lot of foreshadowing or extraneous character interaction, you are immediately plunged into the story. That unfiltered, yet down-to-earth, quality gives The Guild its combination of punch and hilarity.
4) It's Steampunk Month at Tor.com. This seems gimmicky, but so far I've enjoyed what they have to offer, including a guest blog from Cherie Priest and a roundup of steampunk animation, including the wonderfully-done The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. I highly recommend it; not only is the story good, but the shadow-puppet animation sets an eerie, crisp visual tone to the tale. It is another good example of how short-form web entertainment can be done professionally and wonderfully.
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