Let's see -- spoke at Maddy's school yesterday, to about a hundred 13 and 14 year olds. Survived. The pear tree and the cherry trees are coming into blossom too. Tomorrow, without the glorious leadership of Bee Boss Sharon Stiteler, I get to inspect the Kitty hive and go and see how the queen is doing...
I'm currently spending most of the time in the gazebo at the bottom of the garden, alternately writing a sort of outline for something and proofreading The Graveyard Book. This is the US edition of The Graveyard Book, and now I'm taking all the corrections and fixes I did to the UK manuscript when I was in Australia and transferring 90% of them over to the US version (only 90% because I'm letting a few Americanisms that my UK editor had problems with stand -- particularly the ones my otherwise wonderful UK copy editor and I butted heads over. )(There's me at two in the morning on Skype muttering, "Look freak out can't just be a newfangled Americanism -- it's in Fanny Hill, for heaven's sake...") [For the curious, http://fiction.eserver.org/novels/fanny_hill/09.html five lines from the bottom.]
....
If you're on the upper East Coast and sad that you won't get to see me at MIT as all the tickets have sold out, you could -- and should -- down your sorrows in Cory Doctorow. As you will learn over at http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000357.shtml you can learn all about it....
What: Cory Doctorow Benefit Reading For CBLDF
When: Sunday, May 25 at 5 PM; VIP After Party at 7 PM
Where: Comix, 353 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10014
How Much:
General Admission: $20/advance $25/day of show;
VIP Admission: $100/advance only, includes preferred seating, copy of the book, & After Party with open beer/wine/soda bar
Tickets:
General Admission tickets available at
http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=416&sid=1302;
VIP Admission available at
http://store.fastcommerce.com/prod_cbldf-ff80818119f1676e0119f2fbcdc91642.html
You should go.
...
I know that David Tennant's Hamlet isn't till next year. And lots of people are going to be doing Dr Who in Hamlet jokes, so this is just me getting it out of the way early, to avoid the rush...
"To be, or not to be, that is the question. Weeelll.... More of A question
really. Not THE question. Because, well, I mean, there are billions and
billions of questions out there, and well, when I say billions, I mean, when you
add in the answers, not just the questions, weeelll, you're looking at numbers that are positively astronomical and... for that matter the other question is what you lot are doing on this planet in the first place, and er, here, did anyone try just pushing this little red button?"
There. Thanks. Sorry about that.
...
This came in from Laurel Krahn -- I've already mentioned Fourth Street Fantasy on this blog, one of my very very first American conventions, the one at which I first discovered the joy of talking to Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden (amongst others) and failing to argue with Steve Brust:
Any chance you could mention the return of Fourth Street Fantasy Convention in your journal/blog thing? We've extended the pre-registration date from May 15th to May 31st to give us all more time to plug the convention, it also gives those who haven’t registered yet a bit more time to gather the funds together to do so.
June 20 - 22, 2008 in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Guest of Honor Elizabeth Bear.
More details at http://www.4thstreetfantasy.com/
My friend Lillian Edwards pointed me at the TechnoLlama blog, where over This, this and finally this post the entire matter of Dr Who knitting patterns is discussed to within an inch of its life.
I crochet, and I'm a Doctor Who fan, so I've been following the thing with the knitted pattern a little. I've always had a set of Lil' Endless on my mental list of things to eventually crochet, but now that you've mentioned that DC is a bit strict about things I think I might just keep them to myself instead of writing up a (free, not to be sold) pattern. What would your feelings be about crochet/knitting patterns of your characters? It's not just The Endless I have in mind, I've done a seven legged spider before, and there are several other characters or concepts that I think would make neat projects.
As long as things aren't being sold in quantity, DC Comics is incredibly unlikely to grumble about it.
I don't mind at all, as long as it's not commercial. I don't mind anything that's creative, and I especially don't mind if people ask nicely first.
(I mind, very much, things like people selling on ebay CDs with PDFs of the complete Sandman books on them.)
(Nobody is going to complain if a fan turns a Barbie into a Death -- although I heard that DC said no to one of those appearing in a book of photos of interesting Barbie dolls. Nobody is going to grumble if a fan puts up a "how to make Barbie into Death" guide online. If someone put up a how to guide, and then one day hundreds of Death Barbies turned up on eBay, I can see Warners lawyers trying to close it down...)
...
Had a conversation with Paul Levitz the other day about Gaiman's Law of Superhero Movies, which is: the closer the film is to the look and feel of what people like about the comic, the more successful it is (which is something that Warners tends singularly to miss, and Marvel tends singularly to get right) and the conversation went over to Watchmen, which had Paul explaining to me that the film is obsessive about how close it is to the comic, and me going "But they've changed the costumes. What about Nite Owl?" It'll be interesting to see whether it works or not... Read the rest of this post
We watched "Mr. Brooks" last night, which was a little Hitchcockian. It was decent but not great.
I am glad you're feeling better today, Danette. Miss Mama had a terrible headache yesterday and we're having our Thanksgiving meal on Sunday as a result.
I love this time of year for movies. AMC has been featuring Hitchcock movies lately and I've been loving it. TCM showed North by Northwest the other day too.
I watched lighthearted films yesterday. The Princess Diaries. The Prince and Me and its sequel. And I also watched Mean Girls for a while.
Next weekend AMC Family is showing the first three Harry Potter films. We'll be there, though it's true that we'll be peeping through our fingers during the scene with all the spiders in Chamer of Secrets. Ewwwwww!
Dang it. ChamBer of Secrets.
Durned typo gremlins!
Technology does date a movie or book, but as long as it's of-that-era technology, I like it. It adds to the atmosphere.
What's troublesome is when the setting is supposed to be in the future and they get it all wrong. Big clunky computers and analog switches on an "advanced" space ship are always good for a plot-disrupting laugh.
And sadly, one of my favorite books has a number of plot elements that hinge on the inability to get a phone call through, yet there's not a cell phone in the entire story. The novel was written in the early 90s, so the phones did most definitely exist. My then-boyfriend had one and was an early pioneer in ditching the land line and going cell-only. Sheer idiocy in those years of dropped calls and static, but that's another matter.
Anyway, that's my take on technology in fiction-- be wary about anything that's supposed to be in the future, but pile on if it's contemporary to the era!
Hope you are feeling all better as I feel sick from eating too much pie!
I agree about technology dating a movie or book because of how quickly it changes. Didn't even think of it until you mentioned it, but yeah, you are right. ANd I really liked Mean Girls - more because of the supporting class than Lindsay Lohan who I haven't liked since Parent trap.
I'm glad you're feeling better. I love Hitchcock movies. I heard the other day that they are going to remake Birds...I don't want it to be remade.
How sad is it that all the ideas are gone and they have to remake the oldies...sigh...
Charles,
I thought you were talking Jimmy Stewart for a minute, but when I looked it up, Mr. Brooks is some kind of thriller with Kevin Costner as a serial killer--Jimmy wouldn't do that!
Virinia,
Thanks, though I felt sick all today, too. (Boohoo!) Must . . . get . . . to . . . keyboard.
Bunny
Good advice on the future. Could easily be campy if you're off!
Ello,
I liked Mean Girls, too. I've read that TF read a NF about HS girls and was inspired by it. In any case, I think she nailed it!
Brenda,
Remake The Birds? Whoa! I'd be afraid of remaking a classic--most remakes don't come near the standard.
Since I am an unrepentant technophobe, I do have some trouble when I have to write technology into my works. I have to bribe one of my kids, who makes such an eye-rolling 'Oh MOM!' meal of it that I almost wish I had never bothered. Still, they have shown me how to do lots of things on my computer -- I can block offensive e-mails and link -- and they are trying to show me how to use a cell phone too. The other day, I actually managed to make a call all by myself! Next comes texting, but the kids claim they need a long break first. Brats.
I love watching futuristic movies made back in the sixties -- all those ridiculous computers the size of small buildings, the dopey gadgets that they thought up back then. They make me feel so much less of a technology moron than I am.
How embarrassing. I've just realized that I neglected to answer your interesting question due to my chronic long-windedness.
I have not made cell phones a focal part of any of my YA manuscripts, partly to cover my lack of interest and partly because of my lack of cell phone savvy. In one story, the characters are in a world where they haven't even caught up with TV and cars; in another, the boy's mother has refused to buy him another cell phone after he has lost three of them, and in the third, the girl and her father are both nerds, and somewhat old-fashioned. Cell phones do get a mention, but they don't provide an integral part of the text. This may be making a virtue of a necessity, but if my work is ever published and thus acquires a longer shelf life, I will be thrilled.
As if!
Mary,
I like how you handled those issues.
Aw--sorry to hear you were sick! Hope that you're feeling 100% now.
Rear Window is amazing! It's not my favourite Hitchcock movie (that's Shadow of a Doubt--have you ever seen it?), but I really enjoyed it.
I never noticed the lack of technology in Mean Girls! Good catch. My novels are techno-lite because my characters never really need cell phones for the situations I throw them in (well, minus the book I'm working on now). As long as it serves story & character, I'm fine with it. I think branding the technologies might date a novel though (everyone's after the iPhone now but tomorrow...?). One thing I don't like is when the technology (cellphones, PDAs etc) are there as a status symbol and serve no purpose beyond that. I know it's true that lots of people have to have for the sake of having, but I think teens are a lot more practical-minded than they're often represented when it comes to having cells, txting, etc. The ones I know are.
On the flip-side, I do love books/movies/TV shows that explore how technologies have changed timeless situations like bullying et al. Mean Girls could've definitely gotten a lot out of even a minor techno-slant.
(Yikes this comment is long! Thanks for the tough-provoking post, Danette!!)
Hope you're feeling ungreen again very soon!
'the cast switch'--I definitely have to look for this! I haven't seen that movie in years!
:-)
Where's your Santa hat? You had it on over at Charles' blog!
:-)
You *are* a photo wench! heeeheeehee
Courtney,
Good points, especially the one about not using a brand because that can really date you. One writing book I read (I wish I could remember which one)suggested that the writer make up her own brands.
I like that idea because you can never be wrong about its assets, it can never be dated, and you can never be sued!
Church Lady,
Thanks for noticing my hat! I'm trying decorate the blog for Christmas. (Is the hat not showing up here? I can see it, but you know how blogs be!)