What It Is – week ending 11 January [2015]

With apologies to Dave the Thune (as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).

WRITING:

Every day.  1000 words.  That’s the goal.

2015 has started off well.  I haven’t missed a day of writing – though I have missed my 1K word goal a couple of times – and I’m just about to jump back into the novel, with part two set ten years after the opening section.  I’m really excited about this.  It’s an expansion of a short story, “Call of the Sea,” that’s been bubbling in my head for six or seven years now.  Hoping to complete draft one by the end of March.  Then, I’ll let it rest and begin revising in the final quarter of the year. 

I also completed the first draft of a new science fiction short story and mapped out the next one – though this new idea will need some serious “pre-work” (lots of thinking and reworking scenes and ideas) before I dive into the writing.   The idea is solid, but it needs a really deft hand to bring it to fruition.  Once I’ve got it outlined, and if I can do it justice, I think it could be a special story. 

Also shared a couple of writing posts, here on W27, this past week.  One on the magic of the idea in your head and how that rarely translates to the page.  And another on how I got a short storypublished in Needle: a magazine of noir (available now!) – hint: it involved writing and rewriting and rewriting and…a little more rewriting.  The lesson that should, hopefully, be taken from these two pieces is one I have harped upon myriad times at this site – if you want to be a writer, you need to write.

READING:

Started read THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir, on Dan’s recommendation, and it’s so damn good.  The near future (it feels like it anyway) and a manned mission to Mars that has gone terribly wrong – one of the crew is impaled while the rest escape a terrifying windstorm threatening to strand them on the red planet.  The one problem:  the crew member believed to be impaled and dead on the Martian surface is alive and now stranded on the dusty planet for the next four years, with only enough food to last him roughly 400 days (or just over one year) and no way to contact Earth, since the windstorm destroyed the communication array set up for their home base.  From there, the astronaut, Mark Watney, must use his brains, and the limited resources at his disposal, to figure out a way to survive those other 300 days, or else die a slow death over 34 million miles away from home.  Riveting stuff.

Finished up Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, et al.  What a great series.  The relationships between the characters, the inventiveness of the crimes and how they related to the Batman’s rogues, and the fantastic cartooning, among all the other great aspects of this series, add up to something special.  If you’re a comic fan, a Batman fan, a crime fiction fan, or just someone who enjoys well written characters, you should check this series out.  For my money, the character arc of Renee Montoya is both beautiful (especially her relationships with Daria, her lover, and Cris, her partner) and heartbreaking – simply wonderful stuff. 

WATCHING:

Finishing up season one of The Americans.  I was excited about this series when I started, but I’ve quickly found that excitement waning.  There are two issues here, for me.  One is that the writers don’t seem willing – in the first season, at least – to commit, one way or the other, on the marriage of the main characters, Russian spies masking as Americans, for those unaware of the series premise.  They flip and flop back and forth from wanting to make their arranged marriage work to being angered with one another and treating it as the disguise it was always meant to be to coming back together in some idyllic approach to the relationship before falling back into a frigid, workmanlike relationship.  Second, as it has been set up, there seems to be no way for the Russian spies to lose – even when unexpected things happen and they find themselves “off-script,” the two main protagonists always end up on top, and that has diluted any dramatic tension I felt in those opening episodes.  It’s the same issue I have with House of Cards. 

MISCELLANY:

The ITMODcast had a special guest on last week (it is rare that I am timely with my podcast listening) when they interviewed David Frigerio, one of the writers of the science fiction film, The Signal.  It was a great episode and has me even more stoked to check this film out. 

SIGN OFF:

And that’s it.  As always, check out my friends – Brad& Matt and Don McMillan for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and geeky, and we'll see what's what in seven.  

-chris

What It Is – week ending 4 January [2015]

With apologies to Dave the Thune (as well as Mike Baron & Steve Rude).

WRITING:

Every day.  1000 words.  That’s the goal.

The New Year arrived this past Thursday.  New slate.  And so far, I’m three for three with writing.  I looked back at my progress for 2014 at this post, and it was my most successful year yet, across the board.  I wrote a total of roughly 316,000 words (236K last year), submitted 53 stories (## last year), had 4 accepted (2 was my previous best), and 2 of those were published by year’s end – “I Gotta Get Outta Here” in Firewords Quarterly #2 and “Silence” in the Winter 2014-15 issue of Needle: a Magazine of Noir, both of which are short prose stories.  The other two accepted stories are comic shorts I wrote, one of which has already been drawn by Angel Allen and should see publication soon.  So, a good year.  Here’s to even more success this year. 

READING:

Reading Gotham Central right now, by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and a small host of other talented artists.  I’m about three-quarters of the way through, and I’m loving it. I’d read a story here and there before, but never the whole thing.  This has me excited to go back and watch some NYPD Blue or Homicide.  We’ll see if I have time for that. 

Got back to Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics history tome, and it’s interesting and enjoyable, if a bit off-putting when Howe goes into full hyperbole mode.  I’m almost to the point where I started reading comics and am anxious to see what he has to say about that era. 

WATCHING:

Still in the first season of The Americans.  I am impressed with the audacity of the writing – in a recent episode I watched they killed off a character who had been set up as one of the main FBI agents; it was surprising and daring – but I am finding my interest in the show waning.  The trouble they seem to be running into, for me, is twofold.  The Russian spies, though they do run into some difficulties, always come through successfully, while the FBI, even when it seems they’re on the cusp of discovering some important information, always lose.  This makes sense – if the Russian spies are captured, the show’s over – but it lessens any tension for future episodes, similar to a criticism I have for House of Cards.  Secondly, the dynamic of the relationship between the two main leads, the Russian spies posing as an American married couple, fluctuates back and forth like a metronome, with them dedicated to making their arranged marriage work in one episode and then at odds about loyalty to the motherland and the reality that this marriage is a sham and part of the job the next.  It may be the underlying theme of this series, but I wish they didn’t swing it back and forth so much.  Give the audience time to watch the marriage flourish before undercutting it again – that would make for better drama, in my opinion.

I’ve also been watching the first half of the final season of Mad Men.  There is a reason this is lauded as such a great show.  Because it is.  In this half-season, Don Draper is finally trying to put his life, at least his professional life, back together after being given a leave of absence by the company, at the end of the previous season.  It’s pure Mad Men, with some amazing writing, but with a change in status quo that still has Don as partner in the agency, but forced to take orders from his replacement, a tired ad man who doesn’t like to lead so much as lord over those beneath him, and from Peggy, while most everyone in management openly holds him in contempt, with the exception of Roger.  This is one of the best shows on television, and the level does not seem to have waned, as they drive toward the end.

MISCELLANY:

The ITMODcast had its double-length, two-part, year-end extravaganza, with Matt, Brad, and Darren being joined by Bryan Young to discuss their top ten movies of the year, as well as those deserving of “worst of the year” status.  It was a fun four hours, and I continue to be impressed not only with the insightfulness they bring to the discussion but also the fun and joy that is inherent in these episodes.  These podcasts seem to breeze by, even at around two hours each, because there are no pregnant pauses, no fumbling for words (for the most part), and there’s such an energy surrounding the entire thing.  It’s fun to listen to, and, if you enjoy movies and aren’t careful, you might just learn something too.

SIGN OFF:

And, as always, check out my friends – Brad & Matt and Don McMillan for their own weekly recaps on things comic-y and geeky, and we'll see what's what in seven.  

-chris