The Phantom Planet

Why Write Novels At All?

2012-01-16T10:39:00.002-06:00

Usually when people ask me why I write books, I tell them because I have to.

It's a pretty good answer and I can't think of any other way to describe it. For whatever reason, there is this narrative engine within me that compells me to try and tell stories. This engine is missing a belt or two sometimes, but you know what I mean. There is a very interesting article in the NY Times this morning that poses the question in general: why write novels at all? In the face of more popular entertainment, specifically movies, why the novel and not a screenplay? What motivates a writer to write? A reader to read?

The novel faces the same challenge that the play did when the novel took over the mainstream consciousness. I don't think the novel or literature is in any danger - more people read now than have ever read. The book will be fine. In fact, the book is experiencing something of a revolution. The e-reader and digital publishing hasn't so much changed the way we read as how we write. Or who writes. The most interesting part of the article today was this:

The roots of this question (why write novels), in its contemporary incarnation, can be traced back to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who at the dawn of the ’80s promulgated the notion of “cultural capital”: the idea that aesthetic choices are an artifact of socioeconomic position. Bourdieu documented a correlation between taste and class position: The scarcer or more difficult to access an aesthetic experience is — the novel very much included — the greater its ability to set us apart from those further down the social ladder. This kind of value is, in his analysis, the only real value that “refined” tastes have.

Now this is why there has forever been such resistance to self-publishing in literature, and why producing and marketing your own work is a cardinal sin when it's not - when it's expected - in nearly every other medium. Literature above all other mediums has been the distinction between not just socio-economic status, but education and intelligence as well. Reading and writing were not popular things, in the most basic sense of the word, until only recently. The novel itself helped spur a wider, more general literacy. Digital publishing makes literacy viral. The class perspective - represented in literature in the distinction of terms like 'literary,' 'genre,' or 'vanity publishing' - continues, but faces a democratic avalanche in the form of digital publishing.

I'm glad I have the opportunity to share what I write. I would write even if I couldn't publish it traditionally. I just have to. Storytellers have voices. At the fire, at the dinner table, no one has ever said, you can't share your story. You don't have the appropriate education or class.

People tell stories.

Writing In The Light of Day

2012-01-15T14:34:00.001-06:00

“From the midst of this darkness, a sudden light broke in upon me—a light so brilliant and wondrous.” - Victor Frankenstein

So after about a week of solid panic and lamenting the ruin of my art, I put it out of mind for a day. Then I did what Anne Lamott did in Bird by Bird. I sat down and just thought about what I liked in the story. What the story was, not necessarily what I wanted it to be, or what others might want it to be. I wrote down the characters, the places, the scenes, all of it in the journal there on the left, and I discovered something: all the pieces I liked, all the varying aspects of the story I tried to view it through, they all existed within the draft I had been writing. They co-existed rather well. This story - it's not fair to call it a story, really - this world has always been bigger than what I could get my arms around. So many lenses existed to view the world through that I tried one at a time, certain this was it, and then finding out it wasn't. Ultimately, I went back to the beginning. Why did I want to tell this story? Where did it come from? As I wrote down this piece and that piece in the journal, the story revealed itself.

And I found out something else: I really liked this story. This is the story I wanted to tell. I don't think my struggles with the novel are over. In fact, I'm still pretty unsure how it will all come together, but I feel a lot better than I did the other day.

No Write, No Write

2012-01-11T19:13:00.001-06:00

I think back to the scene in Bird by Bird, where Anne Lamott finds out her editor doesn't think the book she has invested everything in and depends on for her livelihood will not be published. He tells her he thinks it's competent, it's... capable, but what's it about? Why did you do this? She stages a passionate defense of the book (after some drinking) and in her rant, discovers the book in her heart is not the one that came out of her head. That's how I feel right now.

I am disgusted with myself and the book at this point. I went from feeling lightheaded with the tipping point a few weeks ago to the stark realization the other day that I am probably on the wrong track with this. Again. What's worse is I feel I was on the right track before.

Day after day I chip away at the book, and I feel, this is it, this is progress; this is the end finally for this story which has hounded me for 10 years. The book radiates this fatigue, let's say; this near persecution of creative unfulfillment. What bothers about this draft - in my meek opinon, this very capable draft - is that it radiates nothing about the passion or the even the interest that first informed this story. The architecture of the book mimics the theme, figuratively and literally; it has become a ghost. A reanimated corpse. As a literary exercise, I suppose it's, again, capable. It contains my best, sparest and sharpest writing.

It doesn't contain any of my soul.

The book has none; that's the point. None of the characters do. They live in absence of passion; memory; vitality. They seek these things, and this animates them and the drama, but as the writer I feel it's become this Russian doll of literal emptiness. All this negativity I feel now and broadcast here may be some sort of existential resistance to this void at the heart of the book, which would not and should not discount the work itself, but I honestly don't believe that's it.

I feel like the book I wrote with my heart I wrote, more or less, a few years ago. And I didn't trust it. I have no idea why. I don't trust myself as a writer. I think that's obvious - way too many ideas going on, just pick one - and why I will in the end have a closet full of drafts and a shelf of a couple books. I wrote this draft and it just emptied of everything I created and enjoyed and got off on. What was left was only the emptiness at the center, the frankenstory obsessed with itself.

I'd put it down, if it didn't so desperately want to live.

Writing Update

2012-01-04T18:32:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd update on where I'm at in my writing on a couple different pieces since I haven't really done that here in awhile. Twitter seems to have taken over my daily updates on my progress.

Novel In Progress aka GhostofBigDamnEpic aka ThatWhichRefusesToDie:

Actually pretty good progress here. 252 pages as of today. I expect the novel will be close to 400 at that end. What's it about? It's about a man alive at what appears to be the cosmological end of the earth - not the end, like OMG, it's the Mayan apocalypse - THE END end. He has seen the world floruish and freeze. He has seen every trace of humanity in the world and in him expire. When he decides to meet his own end, he discovers the story of man - his story - is not yet over. I hope for this to be ready for the fall.

Story Collection:

This is done, more or less, in the sense I've settled on the content. Sort of. I've debated on the Elizabeth story in it, because it has become the foundation of what the sequel will be, and I'm not how much of that I want to give away yet. But it's an experiment. What the hay. Just need to cover this and format and it should be ready for February.

Elizabeth Sequel:

Like I was saying, the Elizabeth story in the collection ended up providing a way through for me on the sequel. I am approaching the sequel somewhat as a level setting of the story. It will assume no one has read the first book. Partly this is due to Miranda's emergence as the main character; partly it is due to the nature of the story itself. One of the themes of the first book is reinvention. The sequel takes the form, broadly, of a murder mystery. The mystery expands into a conspiracy thriller, of sorts. You'll see this - and the big giveaway - in the story. I always wanted to write a murder mystery. My mom loves them and I grew up watching Perry Mason and Columbo... I don't think she had something like this in mind, but I always have to be difficult.

Then It Begins To Resolve

2011-12-30T20:00:00.001-06:00

I never do very good by making New Year’s resolutions, butas I get older, I have gotten more focused on setting specific goals. I feel I accomplished a lot in 2011 - I went to NYC for the first time, I went to New Orleans (ok, let's forget that), I moved into a new house, I published my first novel - two of those are from a lifetime goal list, so 2011 wasn't too shabby. My only real goal for 2012 is to make 2011 the rule, and not the exception. That being said, I have a few small goals I will tend to in 2012:

Publish my collection of short fiction (Winter 2012)
Complete and publish my next novel (Fall 2012)
Start work - and complete a first draft?- on the Elizabeth sequel (2013)
Go back to NYC
Make that return trip to Europe I have been planning for 10 years

There's lots of other things I'd love to do, such as:

Hold my breath until Community comes back on
Stop caring so much about new Apple rumors
Redirect frustration over the things I cannot change into the things I can

But a man must have priorities. Everyone have a safe and happy holiday, and a wonderful new year!

Revising Fiction: The Reader

2011-12-26T11:28:00.000-06:00

182. Have you forgot your reader?

The writer-reader relationship may be one of the most complicated - and unforgiving - in the arts. To give you an idea, do a Google search to see how many qutoes line up on the side of the reader being the most important aspect of writing, and then see how many quotes you can find for the exact opposite.

The truth is, without readers, fiction is nothing. Your reader must be your primary concern, but then at the same time, you have to have a certain ignorance of them. As a writer you need to achieve a couple things in your novel or short story. The first and probably most important is distance. The reader can't be aware of the author as they're reading; if they are, the jig is up and what John Gardner calls 'a vivid and continuous dream' is shattered. Every effect you create within your work has to work towards the goal of making you as the author invisible; you have to work in mysterious ways.

That being said, there's a lot of fiction that is deliberately meta. An excellent example would be one of my favorite shows (and things ever) - the NBC show 'Community.' Dan Harmon has made the show a running commentary on itself, other TV shows and the medium. Part of the audience engagement here is in this communal self-consciousness. The reward is a deeper understanding and appreciation of the medium, and the acrobatic skills of the author; the risk is story.

A prime example of the meta-ness of the show is the picture above. In the background, there's a poster for a fictional show called Inspector Spacetime, which is a spoof of Doctor Who. Inspector Spacetime has taken on a life of its own within the Community - um, community - and has added another lens in which Abed views the world around him. The lenses can be long or deep; the same photo comes from the episode where they parody Glee and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers at the same time. Such acrobatics can be exhilirating, but unsatisfying on a emotional level, if the only thing to invest in is the author's awareness of the story or your own.

David Madden points out in Revising Fiction that between the reader and writer, there has always been 'a secret collusion, collaboration and communion which determines the degree of involvement that is acheived.' This collusion may be conscious or not; it may be willing or not.

Don't get me wrong: I LOVE Community.

Community is not a show that discards its relationship with its audience for the sake of art. The show survives on its characters, but I don't believe it's a show where the characters come first. The emotional and narrative arcs of the characters are mostly background to fairly elaborate executions of genre and meta hat tricks that sometimes only reveal themselves years later. The show struggles to reach a wide audience, and I think it's because the show presents a challenge that many people either aren't willing to able to meet. Most people just want to zone out or have a good laugh after a long day. Where the show may improve is leading with character and getting a buy in from viewers when it comes to the richness the show offers every week.
When you're writing, keep this in mind - a relationship is commitment. It's also compromise. More than anything, a relationship creates trust that then forms the basis for sometimes enormous risk.

Revising Fiction: Uses of Dialogue

2011-12-18T14:21:00.001-06:00

Continuing my series of posts based off of David Madden's essential Revising Fiction:

99. Have you failed to make dialog perform secondary functions?

A lot of beginning writers see dialogue as a way of advancing the plot. Most of the plot will come out through it, and in lesser fiction, characters will contribute things they already know and/or would have no reason to share with someone else because the author needs to get this out for the reader. Dialogue can and should advance the plot - in a play it's often the only means - but dialogue can also convey other functions as well.

Dialogue is a incredibly effective means of conveying character. Done correctly, a character may reveal any or all of the following through dialogue:

Beliefs
Biases
Education
Location
History

Most of this should come subtly. You don't want to have a character announce any of these things (typically). A highly educated person will sound different from someone without an education. One or both of those people may have a bias against the other; this will come out in their interaction, even if they don't openly express it. The highly educated person may be condescending, or we may see he/she is talking circles around the non-educated person in a way that person is not aware of.

Dialogue should also say what the person isn't saying. People often talk around subjects that are painful or distressing to think about. Yet these things inform their conversations and behavior; imagine a married couple deciding which tree to buy for Christmas. The wife has had an affair. They've reconciled but the fault lines are still there. The husband wants the tree. She seems disinterested. They argue over which one to pick. Are they arguing about the tree? The affair?

Try writing this scenario out as an exercise yourself.

Revising Fiction: 1st Person Narrative

2011-12-15T18:25:00.000-06:00

As promised, I'm kicking off a little run of posts dedicated to the topics from David Madden's essential Revising Fiction: A Handbook for Writers. I'll touch on a few of these, and in no particular order, so here goes:

3. If you have used the first-person point of view, have you realized all its potentials?

The novel in progress, otherwise known as #GhostofBigDamnEpic, features a first-person narrator. This is pretty unusual for me. Most of my work tends toward the third person, such as The Book of Elizabeth. I chose to tell the new novel from the first person because of the opportunity the character presented me. The main character lives in isolation, exiled from his memory and every other concept of life that we take for granted. His voice is his only constant; it's repetitious, a trick against forgetting. It had a music and an energy that made it compelling to pursue.

Where I rely on Madden is asking myself some key questions:

1. If the narrator is speaking, who is he speaking to?

The main character s not telling the story. There is no one to relate it to (he is, to his knowledge, alone).

2. Why is he speaking?

He speaks to himself, again as a defense against his strained memory and senility.

3. What is the effect, in general and specifically, on the reader?

The effect then is stream of consciousness. I have to be conscious that this doesn't become rambling, wandering, or pointless, even though for the character (ok, his name is Fin) it actually is.

By asking these questions as I revise (or even as you are generating the work, as I am now), I am crafting the story. I am opening doors on the story that otherwise remain close. Does it matter that he's speaking to himself? It matters a great deal. The engine of this behavior is his circumstance, and the motivation for the story; I can't understand one without the other.

The first section of the Madden book deals with point of view - check it out. Come back next time for more!

Revising Fiction

2011-12-13T20:48:00.002-06:00

You've all heard the old addage - writing is rewriting.

No one believes that more than me. I probably over-revise. I spend years on short stories. 'News Right Fresh From Heaven,' my story that appeared in Fantasy Magazine earlier this year, began almost four years before, as two different stories (one was good, one was bad). I have a couple other stories right now that I have been working on in some way, shape or form for just as long.

It's funny now to be editing my story collection, which will appear very early next year, and to revisit these stories. My intent with the editing was mainly cosmetic. I ended up making some minor edits, mostly aimed at excessive commas and exclamation points (!!!), but also a few bigger changes to sentences and paragraphs. I changed nothing structurally in the stories. I don't want to re-write these, though the impulse sometimes occurs - what was I thinking there? - and so this is less a Director's Cut than it is maybe Edited for Television. I plan to post about each story to promote the collection when it appears. It's been fun to return them. Most of them I hadn't looked at since they were published.

The hardest thing with revision is knowing when to quit. Also hard is knowing when and where to start. An invaluable resource to me for years now has been Revising Fiction, by David Madden. I found it at Barnes and Noble and I've never put it down. I recommend it for advancing and advanced writers alike. What I enjoy most is that the book never quits on me. As I grow as a writer, some of the sections and ideas in the book reveal themselves, or take on new meaning.

One thing I plan to do this week and maybe next is pull out some pieces from the book and offer some of my own thoughts as to how they relate to my writing, and maybe yours.

My Writer Pet Peeves

2011-12-09T18:37:00.001-06:00

In no particular order:

I'm usually too tired from work and writing fiction to blog.
Most everyone says I need to blog to promote my fiction.
I write fiction to promote. On the blog I'm too tired to update.
Most people think since you're a writer, you always know what to say.
Most people - sometimes - think you must be smart, because you're writer.
You calculate the speed at which excitement collapses into disappointment on someone's face as the time it takes you to answer, "So what kinds of books do you write?"
Time=the books you want to write
The best books you will ever write are the ones you dream about right before you wake up.
You listen to music for economy and melody. You watch TV for rhythm and depth. You listen to the way people talk on the bus for dialogue.
You tell everyone else who wants to write to read.

Me & Star Wars: Guest Post by Ty Johnston

2011-11-30T18:44:00.001-06:00

Last month Ty Johnston was gracious enough to let me guest post on his blog. Now, he returns the favor with a great story on growing up with Star Wars, and how it impacted him as a writer:

I’m going to talk about Star Wars, but I want to say right here up front that I am not a Star Wars fanboy or geek or anything of the sort. I enjoyed the original trilogy, especially the first movie, and I found elements of the more modern trilogy which I enjoyed, though it just wasn’t the same experience for the most part (whether that was because I was older or because George Lucas had lost his mind is debatable).

I am 42 years old,and as an author of speculative fiction, I would by lying if I said Star Wars had never had an influence upon me and my chosen career. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am not sure those of older and younger generations can appreciate the effect Star Wars had upon my generation, commonly referred to as Generation X within the media and broader culture.

When the first Star Wars movie was released in 1977 (I refuse to call this film “A NewHope”), I was eight years old. Before seeing the movie, I had showed some interest in science fiction and fantasy literature. My first memories of reading are of comic books, after all, a graphic and literary medium filled with the speculative. I also remember being somewhat of a fan of the Star Trek re-runs on television,including owning a number of Star Trek action figures and even the USS Enterprise bridge play set with the twirling transporter. Also, in 1977, I discovered The Hobbit, at first through the Rankin-Bass animated television show, then through the actual novel.

So, I was no stranger to fantasy and science fiction, even at such a young age. But Star Wars was so much more. I repeat, Star Wars was so much more. Star Wars made speculative fiction more accessible, as before science fiction and the like had seemed only upon the fringes of society, and was difficult to find in movie theaters, book stores and even on television. Before Star Wars, most sci-fi television I remembered were re-runs of shows from the 1960s, most of them in black and white. They had titles like “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits,” and were obviously from a different time than the one I was steeped in during the 1970s. Men wore suits out on the streets. Cars were bigger, longer, sleeker. Women dressed up to cook dinner. Etc.

After the success of Star Wars, science fiction was everywhere. New TV shows abound, and it seemed every week there was some new (though usually awful) sci-fi movie at the theaters. Also, whereas before I could hardly find any science fiction or fantasy at local book stores, now their were names like Bradbury and Heinlein and Asimov popping up all over the place.

But maybe it was just where I grew up in central Kentucky. I’m only offering what I remember. Anyway, Star Wars brought speculative fiction out to the world at large. The movie affected me personally because it only gave me more impetus to want to be a writer, especially a writer of the speculative. I cannot remember a time when I did not want to be a fiction writer, even at very young ages, and Star Wars pushed me along.

By the time The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, I was eleven and ready for more. The first fist fight I ever got into in my life came after my first viewing of The Empire Strikes Back. My school chum John and I went to see the movie together. Afterward, we got into an argument about whether or not Darth Vader was really Luke’s dad. John said Vader was. I said, “No way! He was lying!” One thing lead to another, gangly punches were thrown, and I ended up with my first bloody nose.

To make matters worse, three years later, I was proven wrong.

I could go on, but I don’t want to keep boring you, dear reader, with Star Wars stories of my youth. But let it be said that Star Wars gave me a push when it was needed, so I can thank George Lucas for that.

I’ll add one last little tidbit, then I’ll shut up. Though I have numerous complaints about the modern Star Wars trilogy, in the very last of the films,Revenge of the Sith, for the first time in nearly two decades, I actually felt like I was watching a Star Wars movie again. I felt the thrill of being that young man once more. So, I suppose I also have George Lucas to thank for that.

But I don’t care what anyone says, Greedo shot first!

Ty Johnston is the author of such epic fantasy novels as City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb, and Ghosts of the Asylum. He is also known to pen a horror,dark fantasy or literary tale from time to time.

Find out more at hisblog: tyjohnston.blogspot.com.

Melancholia

2011-11-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

This post isn't about the new Lars Von Trier movie where Kristen Dunst gets married and ends the world (I didn't see that coming either). This is about how writing seriously affects my mood.

If I am making a lot of progress, then I'm a pretty happy camper. If I'm not, as usually the case, my frustration tends to show. This week I made serious progress on my new novel. I had been spinning my tires a bit before, but then I realized what had been the stumbling block. The dam broke, but I wasn't feeling excited, or successful. Somewhere around Friday, I got pretty blue.

It took me by surprise. It took a little introspection before I understood what was really bugging me. In some ways, it was where I was in the book - a major character dies, leaving the story in shadow - but it was another passing that really became real as I worked through the pages this week. Elements of this book date back 15 years. Ideas I kept in my back pocket, concepts and characters I explored elsewhere in earlier attempts. This isn't a drawer novel - if only I could get off that easy - but the truth is I have been working on a version on this story off and on for 10 years.

This week, I realized, to my surprise and apparent dismay, the end was near.

Plenty of obstacles stood in the way of this project over the last decade. Confusion over direction. Artistic limitations. Crippling self-doubt. I shopped earlier, confused versions of it to agents and publishers. Every so often, there would be interest, but the feedback mostly centered on what I didn't get at the time: I was throwing everything and the kitchen sink aisle at Home Depot in this book. This was my love letter to the stories that inspired me in my youth - Star Wars, Indiana Jones - but also a reflection of my interests as an adult, so you'd get a draft like Michael Cunningham trying his hand at writing Lord of the Rings, if the Fellowship flew around in spaceship.

The story evolved, built up to one version and then collapsed. My love-hate relationship with it puts the one I ended up developing with The Book of Elizabeth to shame. I gave the story up for dead a few years back. It refused to die, coming back to haunt me any time I tried to focus on something new. Any time I tried to move on. In the fall of 2009, an idea occured to me - the idea that would eventually become the #SciFiJohnHughesNovel. This story borrowed some of the oldest, most persistent elements I had been trying to shoehorn into the #BigDamnEpic for 10 years.

This summer, I started writing the #SciFiJohnHughesNovel with the intent of it being my next novel. As I went along, the ghost of the #BigDamnEpic returned. I built up a head of steam, and then boom. My stumbling block it turns out was inevitable; I was trying to write the BDE, again.

This led to a pretty bad mood, trust me. But I finally understood what the novel I had been trying to write all along was - here it was, like it had been there the entire time - and the book started to write itself. As I said earlier, this had a surprising side-effect. A couple days in, I was miserable.

The novel - #GhostofBigDamnEpic - will come out next year. Then it will be done. A huge chapter in my life closed. That makes me sad. It scares me a little. What next? What it will be like to not have the security of always falling back on this when other projects fail? Or I fail them?

I don't have that luxury anymore. Elizabeth proved a lot to me. I can take risks as a writer, and now a publisher. I can face adversity, and I can overcome it. I can move on.

Still, the end looms. It feels as potent as the end of a relationship. Does anyone else feel this way? Am I on my own? Let me know.

Carnival of the Indies Issue #14

2011-11-27T11:35:00.001-06:00

My post from last month Mirror, Mirror on character description is featured in this month's Carnival of the Indies at Joel Friedlander's fantastic resource for indie writers, The Book Designer.

This is a website I visit daily and it's become required reading for me as I continue on this journey into independent writing. Please check out my post and all of the other great articles!

How Putting Up A Christmas Tree Is Like Writing A Novel

2011-11-25T20:45:00.001-06:00

You'll start off trying to follow the instructions, and then give up.
Are you watching football, or you..?
Keep pulling left and right long enough, and it will start to look like something.
Remember the ornaments you hang on it will cover up the gaps.
OOH LIGHTS PRETTY.
There's more of it on the floor.
You cap it off with something over the top, or subtle and understated. It ices the overall effect, or completely undoes it.
At the end, your arms and hands hurt.
You always find one you like better at someone else's house.
Next year you swear you'll get a real one.

Must There Be A Definitive Version of a Novel?

2011-11-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

As you may have guessed from my post the other day, I am a pretty big Star Wars collector. One of the biggest joys - and stresses - of collecting any toy line as old and broad as Star Wars is the question of variations. The pic on the left shows that this started right away - Chewbacca went through six major card variations between 1978 and 1985, not counting the nearly infinite versions that feature this sticker or that back - and it continues to this day. I avoid variations by and large. What happens when you reach a certain point in collecting like I have is that, variations are all that's left, and variations are endless.

And expensive.

It got me to thinking though, about variation in fiction. Typically, despite a fascination with looking into the creative process that makes us curious as to what might have been with any one of our most treasured classics, actual, planned variance in novels is pretty uncommon. But must there be a 'definitive version' of a novel?

You see this more in music - the Goldberg Variations for example - where riffs on theme and melody are expected. Also cinema, where 'director's cuts' are ubiquitous. Generally, the novelistic process develops draft after draft that ultimately produces an end product that we consider the authoritative version. Every once in a while though, an author returns to his work and presents a new, 'definitive' version, such as with Stephen King's 'The Stand.'

With the new rise of digital publishing, the potential for this kind of thing increases. You'd think that a writer that self publishes their novel would deliver a definitive version no matter what, as there's no obstacle to it, but with the digital platform, format becomes more malleable. Several writers already serialize their work, and then present a collected version. Some continue to revise. What version then is definitive? The possibilities intrigue me. They allow for experimentation in a way never before permissible - stuck on which direction to take with your book? Take both. Not sure which ending works best? Try both.

The splintering of narrative - the paralleling - possible presents a lot of opportunity. And questions. Must there be a definitive version? Does revision ever really end? Must an author abandon their work, or any one particular vision?

Ralph Wiggum Has Nothing On Me

2011-11-18T20:30:00.001-06:00

Slightly off topic, but...

Some of you may have seen this elsewhere on the web last week, but I am now the proud owner of a fantastic piece and a real treasure, really. This is a 1978 12 back shelf display that is complete and virtually intact. There is some minor wear, but considering its age and condition, it's hardly distracting. The best part - maybe - was that it came with 6 original 12 backs, all of them the 'A' version (find out what all this geekspeak is here). EDIT: Two of them, the Stormtrooper and R2, are UNPUNCHED.

This is the centerpiece of my collection now to say the least.

The 6 figures include R2, Luke, Han, Leia, 3-PO and a Stormtrooper. I had a Jawa previously, which means I'll probably have to get the other 5 now...

A Million Voices Cried Out All At Once

2011-11-18T07:58:00.000-06:00

Voice is the hardest thing to capture in fiction.

Every short story or novel has a voice, even if it's told in the third person. Often the 'voice' of that narrator, omniscient or not, will have a rhythm or cadence particular to the storyteller. Sometimes this is called 'style,' but for me, someone is always talking.

Junot Diaz has an excellent article on voice over the Huff Post this week. Ignore the comments - wow, did some of these people spill their barely bottled resentment all over themselves - and take in what he's saying. I always start with voice; character is voice. Character is story, so they go hand in hand and the failure in one will be the failure of both. To distinguish the voices of your characters, you have to hear them. You need to listen. It's been said a lot of times before and by better writers, but one of the best tools in your toolbox is eavesdropping. Dialogue benefits from this as well, so don't have your earbuds in when you're on the bus or train or standing in line at Starbucks. Hear what other people are saying, and how they say it.

Hear what they aren't saying.

As Diaz says in his article, people speak differently within different contexts. In a job interview, I will speak more professionally and assured than I will with my friends when we are out on Friday night interviewing beers. People also speak from experience. Every conversation people have is an iceberg. We see only the tip. Beneath the surface, a lifetime of resentment, disappointment, unrequited love or suppressed anger informs what two people say to each other, and how. A married couple avoids addressing the fact their marriage is falling apart, but their daily interaction stems from this unsaid conflict; planning dinner becomes a minor fight because last week they fought about what to do because there's nothing new to do. It's the same restaurant again and again, it's the same drive home and the same dull hour in front of the TV before they go to bed and he promised her once it would be different.

In my novel The Book of Elizabeth, two of the central characters - Queen Elizabeth I and Alice Vale, a 24 year-old housewife from Iowa - have a pretty unlikely conversation. The scene is critical because it crystalizes the question of the novel, and situates both Elizabeth and Alice in relation to it. This sets up the rest of the novel and the story still to come. My goal in their dialogue and in the scene was to let their obvious differences manifest through how they spoke, what they said, and ultimately, what they didn't.

What a character doesn't say informs their voice as much as what they do, and that can be experience or it can be their emotional state. If you're very nervous, you will trample over what you're trying to say and not sound yourself; in a novel, we will see this contrast with other conversations. In this scene, Elizabeth exacts a somewhat condescending manner of speech with someone she takes for a 'peasant.' Elizabeth's intelligence, station and self-appraisal inform what she says here and elsewhere, but with limited exception, you don't see her talk down to others this same way. Why does Elizabeth talk down to Alice? Is it because Elizabeth is simply a queen, and Alice a lowly subject? Some of that surely exists - for Elizabeth, it exists in every interaction save for a few - but mostly it stems from what Alice says. Alice alternately conveys a picture of the future that is both hostile to Elizabeth - 'I fear for your Des Moines' - and also incredibly enticing. Alice enjoys a freedom and an agency as a woman that Elizabeth simply never knew. And Alice is a woman of little means and no real education. It horrifies Elizabeth, and her reaction is to throw an elbow.

So, this is my little offering to the conversation of voice. There are many others, like Diaz's. Hear them all.

Community Rules

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

So NBC has elected to leave Community off its recently announced mid-season schedule.

Sign the petition if you'd like to see the show continue. In the meantime, check out this excellent article over at Wired that provides insight into the creative process of Dan Harmon, creator of Community. In the article, Harmon talks about his 'narrative embryos,' a distillation of the story process by way of Joseph Campbell, and oh, Die Hard:

1. A character is in a zone of comfort
2. But they want something
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation
4. Adapt to it
5. Get what they wanted
6. Pay a heavy price for it
7. Then return to their familiar situation
8. Having changed

Essentially, it's Campbell's monomyth, boiled down to the extreme. Harmon uses this same process in breaking every single episode of Community.

Here, from Harmon's blog, is the extremely complex 'embryo' for the episode recently that explored six different possible timelines for the show:

I don't outline or break stories down this way, but often times I wonder if I should. My WIP right now (the #scifiJohnHughesbook) comes together and falls apart every day. Two days ago I was reaching the tipping point, now I'm questioning the purpose of the entire thing. I don't know what this book is. It doesn't feel like other books I have written. It feels strange and awkward. I know I have to just keep going. This novel has been waiting to be written for years.

How about the rest of you? Outline? Embryo?

Guest Starring...

2011-11-14T07:10:00.001-06:00

Today I have a guest post over at author Ty Johnston's blog, on world building and the challenges involved when you're a fan of Hemingway, like me.

Ty is currently doing a blog tour for his new novel Ghosts of the Asylum, available now! I met Ty over at the Kindle boards, which is a good place to meet fellow authors and a good resource as well. Blog tours and guest posts are very cool and different and I look to participate in more of them.

Look for a guest post from Ty here in December!

Frank Miller, You Are The Opposite of Batman

2011-11-13T18:34:00.001-06:00

I'll try and be polite about this nonsense:
This little post isn't going to try and sort out the ways 9/11 impacted Frank Miller and all Americans, nor is it going to attack an artist who clearly has lost his perspective.

What I will try and do here is talk about art and agenda. Every work of art has one. Art is its own agenda; what it tries to convey through you, or about you, your circumstances or those circumstances you may find necessary to shine a light on, art communicates. Art is message. Art then must speak for itself. If you as the artist decide to be the messenger, or if you confuse the form - writing, in this case - with a bully pulpit, or worse, a weapon, then you are not an artist anymore. You are a propagandist.

Frank Miller rants against the Occupy movement in his blogpost. He's entitled to his opinion about the movement. As someone who visited the protesters in Zucotti Park last month, I have mixed emotions about the movement. I also have perspective. Frank Miller does not, it seems. His anger - real, visceral anger - over the protest quickly collapses into his real issue with them. These people hate America, because they aren't protesting the terrorists.

'This enemy of mine' he says, of al-Qaeda. Frank Miller is at war, and art is his weapon. His recent, um, piece - Holy Terror - makes it clear his art no longer speaks. He speaks for his art. He uses it as a means to exact a revenge for what happened to us ten years ago; he uses it as a means to ridicule and diminish Muslims in a way that is ignorant.

The real enemy of America is ignorance.

Ignorance of our evaporating quality of life. Ignorance of those who do mean us harm. Ignorance of why. So, I would say to Frank Miller, and to any writer, write about 9/11. Write about revenge. Write about an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan or a Muslim community in Michigan. Shine a light on the things we don't want to think about. That we don't know about. Let your art speak for itself. Let your reader use their imagination to understand - or reject - what you confront them with. If you are only passing on your own personal judgement of a situation or people, then you are not a writer.

A writer cannot be a judge. A writer protests. A writer prosecutes. A writer defends. In the end, a writer doesn't decide. If they did, they wouldn't need readers.

Sent from my iPad

15 Things You Don't Know About Me

2011-11-11T07:44:00.000-06:00

After Joel Friedlander at The Book Designer:

The Book of Elizabeth is the first novel I have published.

I did it all by myself. Proudly.

It is not the first book I have written (it's the fifth).

None of the five novels (and the sixth one I'm working on now)feature a main character that is male.

I spent a summer in Dublin, Ireland, at Trinity College with the Irish Writing Program. We talked a lot about male/female POV and a person's 'default setting.' I think I said one time men are boring to me. What more can you say about the male perspective that hasn't been said? I overstated it, I think. What might women say of the male perspective?

I get emails all the time from people who think I'm a woman.

What is it about sexually ambiguous women? This has nothing to do with writing. Well. Yes, it does.

Right now, I'm listening to the new Florence and the Machine record. A pattern emerges.

The only patterns in your writing you should be conscious of are the ones that are improving. I graduated from the University of Iowa with a first rate education and a first class confusion of the soul. I spent years after college trying to reconcile the literary novelist with the Star Wars nerd. Many of your peers will attempt to 'solve' or 'diagnose' you in workshops. They're scientists, not writers. You are person of faith - you yearn to communicate something to the world you can't quantify or explain - living in a world of science.

There's always things like spaceships and aliens and time travel in my stories. Not exactly hard science, but have faith.

I'm not particularly religious, but almost everything I write deals with faith to some degree.

My grandfathers, father, and uncle all served their country so I could sit here and ponder things better men asked as only as they died.

I'm only a veteran of bad decisions.

I didn't start watching Community until season 2.

Most everything I learned about writing growing up, I learned from TV.

Call of Duty: #amwriting

2011-11-09T20:00:00.002-06:00

Up to 137 pages in the new novel. Very close to the tipping point. Haven't felt this way, in oh, four years? You'd think I'd do it more often.

Slow Down - Icebergs Ahead!

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

A fair point in the Good Book Alert review of The Book of Elizabeth was the pace of the novel. I knew this was an issue back to when I completed the first draft in 2008. The primary reason the book reads as fast as it does is I was trying to cram all of this world bubbling over in my head under a hard page count given to me by the publisher. Eventually, of course, that became irrelevant.

When I took the rights back, I did consider expanding a little on the novel. At that point though, the idea of spending more time on it made me sick. I wanted to get past the book and four years of my life I felt had been wasted in waiting for it to arrive. In retrospect, I should have taken a breath and expanded on some items. The sequel will be more relaxed in pace, and won't be as hell bent on running through the world in an attempt to hit all the touristy spots before you leave town.

That said, I do kind of like the hit and run pace of the book. Read on for some thoughts on why.

A big influence on me growing up was George Lucas and Star Wars. Lucas approached the OT - not so much the PT - with the idea that he would literally show, and not tell. Lucas blitzes through the SW universe and never really stops to explain much of anything. I wouldn't equate this with the subtlety of something like Hemingway in 'Hills Like White Elephants', but it's the same principle.

I subscribe, mostly, to Hemingway's Iceberg Theory. As he said of it:

If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

The trouble with this theory when it comes to sci-fi, fantasy, or otherwise speculative fiction is that in 'realistic fiction' (wow, I hate that term!), the reader is able to infer much of the hidden iceberg from their own life experience. In speculative fiction, the author more or less has to explain everything as there is often no frame of reference. Your mission as a writer should be to create frames of reference that allow your speculative world to have hidden depth. One way to do this is through the use of casual asides - things that hint at dimension beyond what can be seen.
Suggest. Dig out enough earth for your reader to go on as deep as he or she wants to. Some readers will absolutely want much more skin on the bones of your world - as they should. Others will be satisfied with a mere hint. Your mileage will vary as a writer.

One thing you must do is build enough of a bridge for the reader to cross. You can't bring up something - decades of X-Men plot danglers, looking at you - and then let it hang out there to dry. Suggest something, sure, but give it enough form to be durable beyond your story. Don't introduce a dozen different plot threads and then never resolve them. Present your characters and their story. Drive them around. As you do, look down that street. See something interesting. Wish you could stop.

Or take the time to stop. Do what you feel works best for your story, within its confines. Endless investigation of every alley of your world isn't going to be satisfying either - at some point, something has to happen. What interests you? Do you want to know more about this part of your world? Do you know, and can you present it without writing it? I'm curious to know.

Thoughts?

Character Motivation Or Some More Thoughts On Buffy

2011-11-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

Willow, by Phil Noto.

Character is my first concern in any story.

Character is the story, as far as I'm concerned. Character locks you up into stories that otherwise have gaps in logic or weaknesses in craft. Character will allow you to forgive the unforgivable. Character opens a window on worlds both within yourself and beyond that you otherwise were unable to access. As form follows function, so too your story should follow its characters. Start with a good (or great) character and your story will emerge from them. Many novels or movies you see today focus entirely on an idea - an alien invasion, for instance - and the characters are stand-ins. Bland types inserted to scream or chuckle at as the world disintegrates (every character in the Transformers movies, I'm looking at you).

Character is why I love Joss Whedon so much. All of his work, Buffy in particular, follows from explorations into his characters. Buffy and her friends provided a lot of fascinating material to chew on for seven years on TV and for mostly one 'season' in comic books. As I mentioned in my previous review of Buffy: Season 9 #1, the characters feel to me a little stalled out at this point.

Willow, who has always been the most complex and interesting of all the characters to me, passive-aggressively takes out the loss of her magical ability on Buffy in a way that seems uncharacteristic for her. Willow either says nothing at all, or makes very loud statements; there's never been an in between with her. Buffy idles in self pity, which is her default any time something terrible happens in her life. You would think at this point in her life, after so much, she would have learned not to keep making the same mistakes.

The Season 9 arc follows two tracks: one following the Buffy characters in San Fransisco, and the other following Angel and Faith in London. The Angel series, despite also suffering from the same foggy aftermath of the Twilight storyline, does not have the same issues with character. Angel does exactly what you think he would do: he tries to resurrect Giles and rectify a terrible mistake. Faith tries to impart some wisdom - at the same time struggling with the concept that she has any - to Angel regarding loss and personal responsibility. Both Angel and Faith continue to grow. Buffy and her friends progress - Buffy has a new job, Xander and Dawn play at domesticity - but they are not growing. Buffy and Willow will ignore each other's hurt as they have before, will confront each other in a fashion either personal or epic (or both) and we will continue to circle around the sad fact that the show probably should have ended with Buffy's death in Season 5.

I for one am very glad it didn't. I loved the exploration of Buffy's grief over her own lost peace, and Willow's guilt, but Season 6 is also where we started to see attempts to force characters into positions they no longer filled. Giles died primarily because after high school, he spent 5 seasons without anything much to do. Dawn shuffles around it seems without purpose. I love the series and want to see it continue, and regain the promise I felt in the first 12 issues or so of Season 8, when I felt the series was really going to go places the show couldn't. It got off track after that, but I still have hope. I am locked up in Willow and Buffy despite my concerns. Great characters do that.
Some of this I think has to do with a larger concern about serial fiction - just as I feel character is story, I feel stories need endings. Buffy is without end right now - on one hand, thank God - but it is a story that has had its end built into it from the start ('Into every generation, a Slayer is born...') and has resisted it at turn after turn ('Prophecy Girl', the destruction of high school, the death of Buffy, the destruction of Sunnydale). There's something to be said for its persistence, and ability to exist beyond its original structure, but the strain shows more and more.

That's my opinion, though - what's yours?

4 Stars: The Book of Elizabeth

2011-11-06T12:18:00.003-06:00

Artist Unknown? I tried!

Good Book Alert posted a good and fair review of The Book of Elizabeth today - 4 out of 5 stars! Some very good praise:

'The Book of Elizabeth is a fascinating take on alternative history speculative fiction.'

'One of the joys of this novel is the exploration of this alternate Earth and how the various strands of history and potential history mesh together.'

A pretty interesting discussion on the genre of alternate history and what is or isn't alt-history develops in the comment section. The discussion specifically in the comments got me to thinking about that particular genre and its conventions. I never thought of Elizabeth as specifically an alt-history book. The point of divergence in the novel is very obscure - I never actually identify it, though there are clues - and it is a result of an event that goes unexplained. It's not a traditional 'what if Queen Elizabeth I had lost to the Spanish Armada' kind of POD story.

For readers of alt-history, is an explanation necessary? Is a definite POD? For me, every work of fiction is in some way an alternate history; it imagines a world that either diverges or impinges on ours through the projection of stories and events that (often) have no real historical source. Sometimes this is obvious; sometimes not.

The historical Elizabeth has been extracated from our history at age 32 and transplanted to one completely alien. A terrible event has completely collapsed all of human history, violently, and chaotically. Something new has been built in its place; unfortunately the new structure is a little drafty. Our history remains, in the presence of Echoes, individuals who have survived the event, like Elizabeth, and been exiled in the new history. The confrontation becomes inevitable; will our history - both public and personal - reassert itself? Is it doomed to repeat, as it so often does?

I'd love to know what thoughts people who've read the book have about alt-history or my book in particular - feel free to leave comments!

Whaa-Whaa-Whaa

2011-11-04T21:01:00.003-05:00

Inevitably at some point during a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown's teacher squawks at him in her unmistakable trombdrone and Charlie or one of the other kids simply affirms, or translates, whatever it is Mrs. Donovan says.

'You want me to pound the erasers?'

Charlie Brown is a lovable misfit, the butt of many jokes, and he lives in a world of adults who cannot be understood to us except by children. Unless you are specifically writing for children - or maybe particularly if you are - don't treat your reader like Charlie Brown.

The last thing you ever want to hear someone say as they look up out of your novel is 'Good Grief!

Fiction is a communication device. Communication is a two way street. Likewise with your readers, your characters aren't mouth pieces or translators. For example - let's say the theme of your story is the decay of the American middle-class and the consequences of this locally, and/or nationally. You don't want your characters to simply relay this to your reader through heavy handed dialogue:

'The American middle class is crumbling. It used to be better.'

'I agree. In the past, we would have had better jobs than this.'

'Let's go drink.'

Or something. Let your theme, or whatever argument you're mounting speak for itself through the drama. The details of the world you build up on every page. The interactions of the characters. If your main goal is to use the novel and its equipment as a means of delivering a message or articulating a point, it's probably best suited to non-fiction. If your goal is to imagine a world reflective of an aspect of the reader's life they may or may not be conscious of, then the novel will speak for itself. This aspect of the reader's life - a death, a lost love, a fear of the unknown or rejection of the past - intersects us all somewhere in our lives. The best fiction reflects myriad aspects to different people at different stages of their lives - or different eras.

This isn’t limited to subjects like theme – often you will see theme broadcasted in dialogue or prose that shuns subtlety – so you don’t want to play the role of teacher, either. Grammar, style, etc. - these are tools. The goal isn't to make art of tools. It's to make art with tools. Avoid making your novel a textbook (or bully pulpit for that matter) on style, acrobatic as you may be.

Subtlety will be your best weapon. Forward thinking writers have been using it for centuries to sneak challenging thoughts and ideas past the thought police of their day. Read Joyce - and then keep reading him, again and again, and watch all the layers peel back.

See how a single word - 'nice' - repeated several times in 'The Dead' is used to exquisite effect. 'The Dead' is also an example of the intersection of theme. Nothing obvious here. Readers debate what 'dead' exactly he refers to. Leave your readers arguing. Give them nothing - let them find it for themselves.

Attack The Book

2011-11-01T19:25:00.002-05:00

Right at the moment the characters of the movie‘Cloverfield’ enter an electronics store that is being looted, I knew I waswatching the wrong movie. The movie Iwanted to watch was about these kids, robbing stereos and TV’s as a giganticmonster tears down New York City. Instead, we follow a group of young twentysomethings who are in themidst or on the verge of prosperous lives; their largest concerns are romantic(‘Does she love me?’). The movie wasa good time, and mostly exciting, but we had seen this before.

‘Attack The Block’ is a British movie that follows a groupof teenage boys up to no good on what appears to be Guy Fawkes Day. They live in a government housing project(‘The Block’) in south London and open the movie by mugging a nurse that livesin their building. The mugging goesweird when a tiny monkey-like alien drops out of the sky and demolishes a car. One of the boys, Moses, kills the creatureafter it scars him. Things take a turnfor the worse when more alien monkeys show up and focus their alien invasion itseems entirely on The Block (just why is a spoiler).

This is the best movie I’ve seen all year. And it's a great example for fiction writers.

This isn't really a movie review - just go watch it - but an opportunity to carry on this conversation about imagination in fiction. This film represents a wonderful display of imagination from the writer-director Joe Cornish, who one must assume from his bio on Wikipedia did not grow up a minority in governement housing in south London. The movie gives an illuminating window into lower-class minorityyouth in England - the slang and diction are particularly interesting - 'Trust!' - and at the same time also tells a pretty good story,reminiscent of any number of 80’s horror/sci-fi/comedy movies – ‘Gremlins,’for example. It recalls best ‘ThePeople Under The Stairs,’ which is the only movie in that genre I can think ofthat focuses on minority characters, or lower-class characters in general.

Disaster movies tend to focus on the peoplethat have ‘the most to lose;’ too often they ignore the people that would bethe most impacted by these exotic disasters. What means would a family living in a housing project like this have toescape an alien invasion or other disaster – one thinks of Katrina – and whatresources would they be able to utilize to try and save their own lives?

‘Attack The Block’ isn’t an issue movie. The inequity of the situation is made plainthrough dramatizing it. A writer of fiction has to have the same approach. The issue, the theme, the squalor and inequities we seek to spotlight and in doing so evaporate, these will be self-evident if imagine successfully. If we fail to, we either never arrive at these stories at all, or do so inadequately.

One of the reasons this is so interesting to me is that the novel-in-progress features a main character who is a minority, and lives in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of her city. Her city happens to be on a planet that isn't ours, but the stresses and tensions are the same. The miseries. Can I present a world without making a martyr of it? Can I let this world and its inequities speak for itself? Can I give this novel its voice - the voice of my main character? I am hopeful and dubious at the same time.

Really this is a rally for myself and for you to be as daring - as fearlessly imaginative - as this film. And attack the book - it's Nanowrimo, after all.

Engender

2011-10-31T10:40:00.000-05:00

Another subject in writing that can be as imagination destroying as the technique of characters describing themselves through a mirror is the idea that you can't write outside your gender. This would also extend to ethnicity, class and species - if Orwell can put himself in the head of talking animals, why should it be impossible for a woman to do so with a man? Or vice versa?

I see warnings against this every so often. There was a little bit of this when 'The Help' came out (the book), and some reviewers expressed concern with the author writing in the voice and from the perspective of a black woman.

A failure to place yourself as a writer in the mind of someone utterly apart from you in background or biology is a failure of imagination.

There is a great deal of risk in doing so. Failing to capture the voice and perspective accurately can lead to disaster - especially if your effort comes off as caraciture. In my story 'The Decedents,' which will appear in my forthcoming story collection, the main character is an African-American teenage girl living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. I live in this same type of neighborhood, and have such girls for my neighbors. I ride the bus with them every day. My goal was to listen and observe and imagine their world, as best as I could. It never occured to me not to; it occured to me that someone somewhere would call me out for doing so, regardless of whether I did it well or not.

You can't concern yourself with this.

The effort of the writer is always going to be twofold: 1) to investigate and report an unknown world, character and story to a reader and 2) to allow that reader to then put themselves in that world in a way that is seamless and dreamlike. Placing any restrictions on where a writer or reader can go with their imagination is no different than some government official in China saying where his people can go on the internet. Google the people that live on the other side of town. Google your crazy little sister. Listen to the way people from vastly different backgrounds talk - write it down. Learn the music. You can learn a song - some of you can play it - you have put yourself in an experience that was not yours before and made it yours. Writing from the perspective of a black woman in Mississippi is no different. Your success will vary. Your effort should never - listen. Imagine.

Lift Off This Blindfold

2011-10-29T19:45:00.003-05:00

I had been on something of a tear back in September on the next novel. Then I realized it would be next year if I was lucky before it saw the light of day, and I wanted to have something out there in the cloud since all the advice I get about this digital publishing era centers on volume (woe is me: I write like a snail). So I thought, I'll collect my published short stories. And then I thought, I'll include something new. Like a new short story in the Elizabeth universe, because it's going to be even longer before I get back to that. So I started writing the short story. And then I went to New York City.

So here it is the end of October, and I haven't touched the new novel in over a month.

This happens to me quite a bit. I tend to start things before I've finished another. You'd think I'm good then at picking up threads, but not really. Last week I finished the Elizabeth story and since then I have devoted my time to going through the 100 pages or so of the new novel, finding the voice again. The music. That's all you can do. Perspective helps. Sometimes a story loses its shine. Sometimes you come back and you're more in love than when you left. That's what happened here. I came back really wanting to get back into this story. The novel takes place in a big city, and NYC lent me plenty. Sometimes the knots of a story will undo themselves with some time away. My big plan when I left - a kind of 'double album' - seems less exciting now, though I may still do it.

I've been listening to a lot of music, like I always do, and the mindscore of the novel is somewhere between the fizz of Mylo Xyloto and the fog of The Suburbs. My 80's childhood-Brat Pack movie-Star Wars freak fest. I've also been hanging out a lot in the fuckyeahRuthNegga tumblr - my muse this particular go around (that's Ruth channeling Shirley Basey up top).

The Book of Elizabeth taught me a lot about tenacity in writing. I spent four years seeing that novel through to the end. I left it for dead I don't know how many times. It left me just as many. See your vision through. Even when you have lost the way, or you feel like you have a blindfold on. You are never lost. In the morning, the sun will always come up on you in the east. Keep pushing. That's what I'm doing with the new novel, and I'm excited to tell a story I want to tell. I'm exicted by the idea of finishing a new novel - something I haven't done in years.

Mirror, Mirror

2011-10-28T23:45:00.002-05:00

Recently I bought a copy of a pretty well reviewed and promoted speculative fiction novel. About two chapters in, the main character looks in a mirror and describes themself. I literally closed the book and stopped reading. The novel had other issues, but this put me right out of the story. This technique - being generous here - occurs a lot in first person narratives, about as often as a story beginning with the main character waking up from a dream. The mirror device is best avoided, but not necessarily because it's so overused - it's best avoided because simply put, it's so easy.

A character, especially a protagonist, should never be described; they should be imagined.

This comes down largely to style and preference, but the pleasure of reading is the exercise of the imagination. A movie or a video game robs us of our need to work this particular muscle - it flexes other ones in the best of these - but in fiction, we're the pilots of cars our minds determine through the negative space our words create. What do I mean by this? I love describing and descriptions of setting. Setting contributes to our understanding of character, same as dialogue. Where a person lives informs our picture of who they are and what they may look like. The best writers convey setting with the same subtlety I'm advocating for character - I like rich description in setting. Descriptions of character, save for some aspect of their appearance that is integral to the story or that simply can't be deduced from other clues (their background, speech, the insight of their counterparts), I avoid those by and large. Writers of fiction should avoid describing their characters in detail, period. What the reader brings to their reading - their background, speech, the insight of their counterparts - is half the joy of fiction itself.

In my novel The Book of Elizabeth, I don't describe the character of Alice at all, except for the probably too cute aspect of her having an 'apple belly.' Most of the comments I got from readers all mentioned in some way how they could picture Alice - how they felt like they knew her - which is testament only to the fact that her setting (rural Iowa, 1986) and her speech ("So, like...") helped create a mental picture of someone who is now largely their own.

As Elmore Leonard mentions in his own 10 rules of writing: a character in John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks."

When you're writing your story, create your character through they way they talk. Their home. The car they drive, or what they eat. Each detail will create the border around a space the reader will fill in on their own, and by doing so, you create something you can never describe.

Through Chaos As It Swirls

2011-10-25T20:23:00.000-05:00

Listening to new Coldplay. So many great songs - something feels missing. Could be first listen jitters.

Lull in posts. Went to NYC and had a truly incredible, really meaningful trip. Some of the best four days of my life. I visited the Statue of Liberty, Zucotti Park and the Occupy Wall St. protesters, and the WTC memorial all in one day. A rain storm stopped long enough for me to enjoy each. I caught up with old, dear friends and made new ones. I can't write it all here, but that old Tony Bennet song about SF - I left my heart in NYC.

NYC isn't entirely to blame for my lack of posts. I've been working on a new short story - closer to a novella really - that takes place in the Elizabeth universe. It takes place after the events in the novel and actually has turned out to be something of a pilot for the follow up to Elizabeth. The eventual sequel has really taken a different turn than I originally thought. Right now it follows more than organic development of the story rather than an extrapolation of the questions in the first book. Those questions don't have answers, and the new book will ask more questions than offer answers.

The story will debut in my still untitled story collection, which will be out very early next year. The collection will feature most of my published pieces to date, as well as a few new pieces, like this one. I finished the first draft of the story tonight, so I'm back to blogging. I need to get back to the novel I have been working on, which I've neglected now for over a month. I have so many stories I want to tell. I was talking with my friend Polly in NYC about this. I wish I could just realize them all into being. It's like mining for gold. So much effort for so little return.

Wapusk

2011-10-08T15:02:00.000-05:00

The criminally underappreciated Kathleen Edwards returns with one of her loveliest songs yet, Wapusk (below). I have been playing this and the B-side over and over today. I can't wait for the record, which is due early next year. I saw Kathleen in Chicago a few years back when she was touring to support 'Asking For Flowers.' During the opening act, she came out to watch in this hooded sweatshirt and I totally blew her cover by introducing myself. It was worth it.

She has also been doing a terrific cover of 'Feeling Yourself Disintegrate' on her current tour opening for Bon Iver. This is a shortened version of it, but the best quality wise of what's out there on You Tube:

Bored Now

2011-09-30T22:13:00.003-05:00

I've had the first issue of Buffy Season 9 for two weeks now. I live and die by Joss Whedon. I love Buffy. I love Buffy in comics even more.

I couldn't be moved to write anything about this issue.

Not that there is nothing to say. There's actually quite a bit. Buffy flirts or possibly flirts with everyone in the cast (more on this in a sec). She has moved to San Fransisco to work in a coffee shop. Her friends have moved with her. She gets drunk and acts stupid at a party.

She never mentions Giles is dead.

Very little seems to have changed for Buffy. The character suffered a terrible loss and had her world utterly demolished at the end of season 8 - the climax of a story I still simply can't understand and no you can't make me even though you continue to try - yet Buffy the character remains firmly stuck in neutral. The writing does too.

The story repeats things we've seen before - think 'Anne,' think 'Doublemeat Palace.' Buffy's life has gone to pot, and she takes up a real job in a different-ish environment while flexing considerable denial muscle. Inevitably she is drawn back in to the world that refuses to let her go. That clearly will happen again, even if that world is diminished.
What leaves me cold is despite the serious stakes - Buffy is now completely without any mentors, Willow is disturbingly blase after being divorced from magic and consequently her power, Xander is still Xander, except less and less all the time - the patterns remain the same. Buffy will get the big picture, which will involve Willow, both textually and other-textually, though the writers can't seem to decide if the subtext is becoming the text.
At the beginning of this issue, Buffy wakes up after a night of serious drinking, naked in her bed. Willow is mostly naked, in her bathroom. Buffy questions if they had sex. Willow teases her a little. They share a - friendly? - kiss. The Willow/Buffy dynamic has long been subtextual to the point of debate, but in Season 8, Buffy's experimentation sexually opened a door on the relationship that both probably thought didn't exist. The scene at the beginning of the comic doesn't advance this. It actually felt a little like Whedon was playing with the shippers, especially after he repeats similarly vague scenes with Buffy in regards to Xander and Spike.
To me, the real dynamic is in how these characters grow. Willow and Buffy in some ways are growing farther apart all the time, yet closer; they represent the heart now of the series, and different aspects of the feminine power that the series has always represented. Power that is inherited, and power that is obtained. Explorations of this power dynamic, and its impact on their relationship continue to be the draw for me. So far, Season 9 isn't very magnetic.

I hope it will change.

20 rules of detective fiction

2011-09-28T08:51:00.001-05:00

The Elizabeth short story for the collection next year has turned into a murder mystery of sorts. The story dimensionalizes let's say the larger Elizabeth universe and gives some perspective on the next novel. It does break by default rule #13 though... but rules are made to be broken.

Looking forward to it as my mom has always been a mystery nut and by extension so am I.

By the way, this is my first post from an iPhone for the blog. Definitely need some more features for this app.

Exit Comfort Zone

2011-09-25T11:57:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I feel like this guy trying to plug my novel, but the downside of being an independent writer is that I am my own business. I have to shill, as uncomfortable as it makes me sometimes. This somewhat tongue in cheek post over at TNH doesn't really have anything to do with my own situation as a writer. Not really.

But just the same, stepping out of my comfort zone, if you have read The Book of Elizabeth, and if you enjoyed it, help an independent writer out by doing some of the following things:

1. Order a copy. Pick your poison: paperback, Kindle, or Nook. iPad and more coming soon.

2. Write a review. This is huge for indie writers. Word of mouth is everything. Post a review at Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble.

3. Attend an event. I'm working on possible readings/things in the near future. Check back for details.

4. LIKE my Facebook page. Even if you hate the new Facebook.

5. #Fridayreads and #followfriday him @Darbyharn on Twitter.

I've gotten some really wonderful comments about the book, and a lot of people asking for more, so I feel good about how things are going. I appreciate your support as always!

Like A Modern Man

2011-09-24T11:26:00.002-05:00

Woke up way too early with the need to puke (thanks Ben). Spent the morning compiling a draft manuscript of a short story collection I will publish after the new year. I've wanted to do this for a while, but for some reason or another haven't. This book collects most of my published stories, as well as a few new ones, and a few poems and short pieces for good measure. I laughed a little too as I realized I will be editing some of the published pieces. I have been protesting George Lucas doing this to Star Wars recently. Thankfully no one cares about the original versions of these stories.

The collection may also include a brand new short story set in the Elizabeth universe. The thought occured to me that it might be a good idea, and a fun way of tiding over anyone who might be wanting more, as it is going to be a long wait for the sequel.

The reason for that is because the sci-fi John Hughes project has become two novels. The writing is going very well - 116 pages so far. I don't want to say too much about the particulars of the novels yet, in case I end up losing my enthusiasm, but basically you're going to get a double LP. It's going to be pretty cool, for me at least. Hopefully that will be next year (both).

After that, my plan is to revisit Elizabeth, Miranda and Alice. More to come!

Art by James Jean.

No Reading At Work

2011-09-22T20:23:00.002-05:00

My very amazing coworkers threw a bit of party for my book today (along with a bon voyage for our friend Nicole, who is leaving us for another department). Check out the doodle art by fellow sup Teaya. Very cool. It was very, very wonderful of them to do this. We had amazing cupcakes from Scratch and Andy Rooney - I mean Pat - interviewed me a little about the book.

I am so lucky to work at such an amazing place, and to have such wonderful colleagues.

Thank you all!

Himalayan Space Porn

2011-09-21T19:43:00.002-05:00

I should really post something about writing here.

A Long Time Ago, In A Toys R Us In Paramus

2011-09-20T19:47:00.000-05:00

Bumming around on Ben's blog I found this old, very low quality video of a newscast from 1983, featuring a toy aisle from Toys R Us, on the day Return of the Jedi came out:

You got to love this.

This One Has Legs

2011-09-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

I picked up the new version of Batgirl today (good thing I had Mike put it in my pull box, because it vanished off the shelves) and wanted to share some thoughts. There's been some controversy over this book, mainly because as part of the DC reboot, and also because Barbara Gordon is back in the costume after 20 years. And walking. For those of you who may not know, Barbara was shot and paralyzed in The Killing Joke back in 1988. This event, along with the contemporaneous arrival of Watchmen, Swamp Thing and Batman: Year One, ushered comic books into the modern, 'adult' age.

Barbara has spent the last two decades in a wheelchair, as Oracle, a sort of computer hacking expert and intelligence officer for Batman's extended crime-fighting operation. Oracle represented a lot of things; real-life consequence to what had been child's play; it doesn't always work out at the end of the issue; and a hero, a symbol, for people with disabilities in stories dominated by people in underwear. When DC announced Barbara had somehow stood up out of her wheelchair and walked again, the outrage by those people that valued her status as the only hero with disabilities in comics should have come as no surprise. To DC, apparently, it did.

DC has come off as surprisingly tone-deaf when it comes to women lately, and that really came through when this week we found out Barbara is not the only character with a, um, makeover:

Amanda 'The Wall' Waller, a long time DC character with a figure unique in comics, became utterly cookie-cutter with her appearance in Suicide Squad #1 (also showcase for a truly stupid revamp of Harley Quinn, a personal favorite). I loved the reaction to some of this, so I had to share it:

Anyways, it's not easy being a woman in the DC universe. What do I think of Batgirl #1 myself? The art was so-so. Some perspective concerns (is that her leg coming at me?) Overall, it was fine. I actually found myself pretty involved in it, especially at the end, when she faces a moment that's very plausible given her experience. Barbara as always is fun and engaging and it's nice to see her in the costume again. Only problem is, costume comics don't do it for me anymore, and the 'new' DC frankly leaves me confused. I'm all for reboots - our pop culture has reboot on the brain lately - but any revisiting of an existing character has to honor the spirit of that character.

Barbara is here in spirit. Does the fact she's no longer disabled dishonor her? Is she her disability? Is it more important that there be a character that is a symbol for people with disabilities?

What did you think?

Geroge Lucas (Insert Your Opinion Here) My Childhood

2011-09-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

Harry Knowles, whose reviews I generally avoid for their lack of perspective, provides quite a bit on the new Star Wars Blu-rays over at his website.

The discussion among fans has basically reduced the films, particulary the original trilogy, to the sum of its parts. As George Lucas has dissected the films, amputated them and grafted on new parts, a large group of fans have done the same. These films have been broken down and analyzed to the breaking point. People forget why they loved them in the first place - or they identify what they loved, and consequently, their childhood - with the parts Lucas excises.

Harry does a very good job of reminding us that the films are more than the sum of their parts, and so is his enjoyment of them. It got me to thinking about what Star Wars has given me. I am a Star Wars baby. The impact that film has had on my generation is hard to quantify; what other work of art in the last 30 years inspires this kind of debate or attention? It could be said it's much ado about nothing. They're just movies, and sometimes we forget that. But for today, I'd like to remember why Star Wars is so compelling to me, and why I own the movies on Blu-ray despite my own concerns with the endless and needless changes George Lucas makes to his movies.

Star Wars is entirely responsible for my lifelong love of astronomy and science. I live and die for NASA. Every day they announce something that blows my mind, like this. Space is fucking cool.

I think I would have always been a writer, but Star Wars galvanized my imagination at an early age. I was writing and drawing these truly awful 'homages' of SW and other sci-fi stuff pretty early. I remember writing some kind of dystopian sci-fi thing in a motel when my mom, brother and I went to visit my grandpartents in Rock Island, IL. This was 1985, so I was eight. Today, I am a full time fiction writer - independent, like George Lucas - and currently writing my own space adventure.

On that trip in '85, we famously stopped at the Toys R Us there in Moline. Famously because this was the one and only time Aaron and I saw what turned out to be the last edition of the original Kenner Star Wars toys (The Power of the Force post-movie line, with the coins).

I lived for Star Wars toys. We didn't have them all, but we had quite a few. It's hard to imagine how we maintained any sense of paitence when these things came out like 10 at a time once a year. Today, Hasbro releases close to 100 Star Wars figures a year, and that is simply not enough for some people. Star Wars made possible what many consider the Golden Age of boys toys (1985 would have been its zenith; that year also saw the best of GI Joe, Transformers and He-Man on those same shelves at Toys R Us) and it made me a fan of toys in general. I love dumb plastic shit.

My SW collection is pretty extensive. I have a complete collection of the original figures, including the Vinyl Cape Jawa (here's just a piece):

Star Wars also led me like a lot of others to the writing of Joseph Campbell, who has greatly influenced my outlook on the world. Campbell is essential to my development as a writer, and as a person; he is a guide to ways of dealing with a world polarized between its past and future.

I fell in love with film making and went to film school at the University of Iowa, because of Star Wars. Sometimes people will tell me after reading a story of mine, or the novel, that "I could see it in my head. It was like a movie." This is a huge compliment to me and ultimately due to a love of film, trying to harness the power, speed and visual impact of film in words.

And most of all, Star Wars gave me memories. The drive-in. The Blue Light Specials at K-Mart. Shopping downtown for figures when there were stores downtown. The 'wall' at JC Penny of toys. The Christmas catalogs from Pennys and Sears. Winter Bibles.

The films gave me a lot, none of which the changes Lucas makes can take away.

Out With The Wash

2011-09-14T14:21:00.000-05:00

Update: more to the story.
Read this somewhat surprising story about a team of authors finding their gay character edited out of their YA novel. A really interested discussion about traditional publishing and YA in general follows. The authors present their choices at the end, but none of them include going independent.

I feel indie-publishing should be an option. I am all for getting the Big 6 to evolve, but with this story and others this week, it seems pretty clear that traditional publishing is not changing with the times. If anything, they may be regressing. Case in point:

What do the girls on these covers all have in common?

Excuse the quality of the picture, but you see this quite a bit - all over actually - any time you go to the YA section of a bookstore. A lot of fair-skinned, super modelesque cover girls who I imagine don't exactly represent the characters in their respective books. Who knows, maybe they do.

So I get confused sometimes, whether I'm looking at book covers, or ads for the new season of Gossip Girl or The Vampire Diaries. It's not entirely new or surprising - Justine Larbalestier infamously discovered with the rest of us that the cover girl of her novel Liar didn't exactly match up with the main character Micah, described as biracial. See the difference here:

Justine succeeded in changing the cover, but overall the state of affairs has not improved on the bookshelves. 'White-washing' has a very long and knotted history.

This is of particular relevence to me now because I am currently writing a novel that, technically, is YA. It concerns a teenage girl on a planet where night falls once a year. The plot follows her through this annual night in a mash-up I'm describing loosely as 'a sci-fi John Hughes movie.' The planet otherwise bakes in the day for the rest of the year and is mostly desert. The protagonist certainly is not white, blonde, and blue-eyed. I never describe her physical features in the book, and I don't intend to as of right now, but I got to thinking in the bookstore:
Should I?

By not describing these features (I hardly ever do so in any story) am I allowing for too much interpretation? If I sold this book to a traditional publisher, would the protagonist (don't want to give away her name yet) stand a chance of showing up on her own cover? By not stating it, do I forsake an opportunity for non-white readers to recognize themselves in a story they traditionally do not? Or do I potentially encourage white readers to imagine themselves as a non-white character?

If race or sexuality doesn't matter, then does it matter?

Battle Lines

2011-09-12T13:34:00.000-05:00

Kiana Davenport writes on her blog about an incredible and discouraging ordeal she recently went through:

In January, 2010, I signed a contract with one of the Big 6 publishers in New York for my next novel. The book was scheduled for hardback publication in August, 2012, and paperback publication a year later. Recently that publisher discovered I had self-published two of my story collections as electronic books. To coin the Fanboys, they went ballistic. The editor shouted at me repeatedly on the phone. I was accused of breaching my contract (which I did not) but worse, of 'blatantly betraying them with Amazon,' their biggest and most intimidating competitor. I was not trustworthy. I was sleeping with the enemy.

It gets worse:

Last week, I received from their lawyers an official letter terminating my contract with them, "...for permitting Amazon to publish CANNIBAL NIGHTS, etc...." and demanding back the $20,000 they had paid me as part of their advance. Until then, this publishing giant is holding my novel as hostage, a work that took me five years to write. My agent assures me I am now an 'anathema' to them.

What's really at stake here for the publisher?

When she signed the contract, it wasn't for her backlog - if the publisher thought so, that's a huge issue. Kiana and any author has the freedom to do what she wants to with work she holds the rights to. It can't be they object to her publishing anywhere else at all; one must assume that they understood and most likely encouraged the fact that Kiana would be continuing to write and submit short stories to magazines while under contract with them, and that these stories would possibly be published. This actually would be a necessary and expected means of promotion by an author they had invested in. So... what cost is her self-publishing works she now holds the rights to?

Not money. The couple hundred dollars she might make from a sale of a short story is nothing. The money she makes from Cannibal Nights may or may not be nothing. It doesn't represent lost revenue for the publisher. What's really at stake for the publisher is two fold:

They have signed an author who is actively still self-publishing. Self-published writers are not the legitimized, industry sanctioned writers we publish. No thanks.

As an author that belongs to a house, your voice belongs to them. You have no voice but which they choose to express.

This is truly unfortunate for Kiana. It's a cautionary tale as she says. And it's a wake up call, to everyone with a voice. Stay independent, and keep it.

UPDATE: Now, there seems to be debate on whether a non-compete clause existed in her contract. If it did, and Kiana signed it, then she is in violation of it. My opinions center particuarly not on the purpose of the clause - but the intent. If the intent is to prevent an author from self-publishing or publishing any work to which they hold the rights - i.e. previously published material that is not a new novel the publisher has paid you for - then I disagree with that. Good discussion here.

It Will All Come Together Someday

2011-09-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

And even in our sleep,
pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
and in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom to us
by the awful grace of God.

- Aeschylus, 3rd century BCE

On The Future of the Book

2011-09-09T13:21:00.003-05:00

Following the lead of Joel Friedlander , I offer below my responses to the 5 keywords supplied in this interview:

#ebook—When I read the word ebook, I think ‘ibook.’ Not that digital publishing is some consequence or invention of Apple, but that it’s the engine of democracy in publishing. ‘I’ finally have control, choice and opportunity. Not only in communicating my art to an audience, but it communicating my art period; the ebook is going to allow for wonderful experimentation. The book will evolve with the form.

#future—Unknown. Will traditional publishing perish? Will it adapt and survive? Will the vehicles for e-publishing like Amazon or Apple just become another publishing house, and gate keepers of digital reading? Does the prospect of financial gain in e-publishing create a bubble that bursts in the end? I believe great works of literature will emerge through self-publishing and end once and for all the stigma against it. Will these works struggle to find readers? Will the independent community support itself?

#indie—A point of pride. At the launch party for my novel The Book of Elizabeth, my brother used the term ‘independent artist’ when introducing me. It took me off guard how proud that made me. As an ‘indie author,’ I am on my own in every way, but I am together with hundreds of other artists who have proudly stood for their own art in their own medium for decades without institutional bias against them for doing so. I stand on top of a wall that has separated writers from readers for centuries. The wall is falling.

#prices—The threshold. Is a novel at $2.99 worth less than a comic book at the same price? A DVD rental? Open question. Prices for ebooks will destroy the paperback market I think, but not books in general. Books will continue to be desired and be works in their own right. Hardcover and unique editions will probably thrive somewhat as people look to a book for its inherent value and properties. And their scarcity.

#innovation—Necessary. Traditional novels as ebooks will do just fine, but the future of this form will be defined by those that explore the boundaries of digital publishing. Do they incorporate video and sound elements, and become more like comic books? Movies? Do they become more interactive, and become more like games? Do words become decoration, as opposed to foundation? Does our language itself evolve through this process? Is the written word really the wall?

Skull Salad Reviews: The Book of Elizabeth

2011-09-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

'The world-building throughout this novel is a display of unbridled imagination.'

An Open Letter to Sinead O’Connor

2011-09-05T19:46:00.000-05:00

Dear Sinead,

This is in response to your ad for a new boyfriend. I don’t meet many of the qualifications you specified, but if you hear me out, I think you will see that I am your man.

· I am only 36, but I am an old soul like you.

· I don’t live in Dublin or Wicklow. I live in Iowa, but I spent a summer in Dublin studying at Trinity College. I know a summer isn’t much but Irish hearts are made in days.

· I am gainfully employed. I have a pot to piss in.

· I am an artist. I write novels out of frustration for the songs I can’t sing.

· I am sufficiently hairy.

· You had me at hello (1990).

· I am not a Brian or Nigel. I am a Darby.

· I stood by you back then through all the hate and misunderstanding and jokes at your expense.

· I have no hair really on my head and am a slacker when it comes to the hair on my face.

· I missed meeting you in Dublin by a few minutes at a restaurant near the Abbey Theatre. This doesn’t mean much except that my friend Polly apologized for even telling me she saw you in the restaurant before the play started, because she knew from the first day we met that my goals for summer were 1) To meet you 2) go to my family’s home in Enniskillen 3) write fiction, in that order.

· I am snuggly. The correct term is ‘Darbalicious.’

· Every time I hear you sing I think it will be fine if I die and never hear the sound of God’s voice, because there is no voice that could ever be more beautiful than yours.

· I live in my own house and I like my mother, even if she didn’t want me watching your videos.

Sinead I hope you find true love and happiness. Even if this and all the other applications give you a laugh, it will be a gift to have added to your happiness.

Sincerely,

Darby

To Freddie On His 65th Birthday

2011-09-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

Follow the link to see a truly wonderful happy birthday wish to the astonishing Freddie Mercury.

Super Hamm

2011-09-03T11:39:00.003-05:00

Don't know if anyone has seen the new Superman pics, but... yeah.

Here's where I line up, and AMAZING artist Phil Noto brought it to life for us:

Your Nice New Outfit.

I've been living on Phil's Tumblr for a while now. Great for pot stirring while writing.

Going On Faith

2011-09-03T10:14:00.001-05:00

I am a huge, huge, Buffy fan. Like a lot of other people, I tripped out over the return of the character and world in comics, with Joss Whedon writing. The show was a comic book at heart, with seasons structured like comic book arcs, with a big bad every year. The comic started off tremendously, rolling along for three years until - it rolled along for three years. Season 8 ran way too long and the Big Bad - Twilight - turned out to be Angel. I had no problem at all with the villian being Angel. I never read the IDW post-Angel series, so for me, Angel and crew died in that alley. What happened there? Did something make him turn evil? He had been on a do bad things for good reasons path at Wolfram and Hart in Season 5. Maybe this was the culmination of that.

Ah, no.

I still don't understand Twilight's motivations, and reading the first issue of what is technically Season 9, Angel & Faith #1, it's obvious no one does. Not Angel and not the writers. The Twilight thing informs everything here. Angel murdered Giles at the end of last season and is now trying to atone with Faith's help (wonderful reversal of their relationship). The only problem in this wonderful comic is that Angel is still wishy-washy on the Twilight episode and so too then is the writing. Either Angel was responsible for his actions, or he wasn't; just pick one and move on.

Here's a run down on the many, many great things about this comic:

The art by Rebekah Issacs. Excellent likenesses and very strong overall.
The dialogue - sounds just like them.
Characterization. It's Angel and Faith. No doubts this time.
The concept! I love the idea of the two of them working off of Giles' old cases.
The end. I like where this is going. It's very in keeping with the series. Here's hoping they actually get there in a reasonable amount of time.

My Life: The Blu-Ray Edition

2011-08-31T18:15:00.001-05:00

Following a recent trend, I am pleased to announce a series of changes to my life that I previously was unable to acheive given the budgetary and techinical limtations at the time. I understand this is different from what some people know and love, but also understand, this was my vision all along.

Let the changes commence:

1. I now look like this.

2. In the original losing my virginity scene, I shot first. This has now been corrected to show the two of us going off at the same time. Far more realistic.

3. There is now a dinosaur walking through every home movie of my childhood.

4. To emphasize my true emotion, I now scream "NOOOO!!!" any time I am upset.

5. I deleted the scene from our summer where I planned to tell you that I'd been a wimp and that I was in love with you, but you showed up to the theater with that other guy. Now I tell you right away, and the last 11 years isn't the same scene over and over again.

6. I have digitally painted out every single blemish from my teenage years. This required months of painstaking and exacting detail.

7. Instead of my uncle dying two years ago, he lives and makes fun of the fact I have no hair.

8. I now have hair.

9. The four years I wasted waiting for my publisher to put out my book is shortened to two and I come to my senses far sooner.

10. I don't know what the new scene is, after I tell you how I feel. This would mean writing something new, and not just revising what happened over and over again. I feel safer, editing. That way I can control what happened. I can change the past, and stall the future.

In Which I Am 59 Pages Into The New Novel

2011-08-14T16:27:00.000-05:00

Today I knew the new novel was going to stick - there have been other 'new novels' in the last couple years - because I found myself wanting to go to the library to look up stuff. This is the weird litmus test I have with a novel. If I feel the need to go downtown and gather some books, then it's a keeper. If I don't, then I'm probably going to get bored of you pretty quickly. Maybe I should apply this to relationships.

'Hey, mamma. Want to go down to the library with me?"

Books I checked out for research:

"Twilight At The World of Tomorrow" (about the New York World's Fair)

"You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried" (essays on the John Hughes Brat Pack movies)

I wrote a scene today where the main character tries to mend her dress with scraps of fabric left over from the creation of other kit-bashed dresses for her cousins. The kernel for this scene actually began in another novel (did not go to the library for) a while back. It struck me as I was writing it, that this new novel is stitched together from the scraps of other books that never came together, or did, but unsuccessfully. The idea for the story is pretty old - 15 years old, at least. Frankenstein lurks behind everything I do. Elizabeth was sort of this bastard child - unexpected, vibrant - everything else seems kibble, scrap for the creatures that sometimes come to life when the electricity runs through their patchwork bodies.

In Which Nothing About Audrey Hepburn's Ex-Husband Interests Us

2011-08-10T20:05:00.000-05:00

Darth Audrey? Nobody's perfect.

So When's The Next One Coming Out and Other Questions

2011-08-08T19:56:00.000-05:00

Impossibly - happily? - one of the first questions people ask me who have read Elizabeth is, when is the sequel coming out?

I tell them a little about the history of this book, and they say, you must have it already in the can, what after four years and all? Yes and no. I have about 150 pages of what will someday be the sequel to Elizabeth. About half of it I wrote in 2009 or so, before this paralysis over what was going to come next took over my life. The other half more recently. I like it. Miranda is older. She has become the centerpiece of the story.

Elizabeth (the book) is like one of those relationships where you fight and break up and get back together just to do it all again. I have a serious love/hate thing with it right now. I love that people seem to like it, and want more. I hate that I can't get past it and all I want to do is something else.

I am writing a new book, completely and utterly different than Elizabeth. I'm 50 pages into that right now (!!!) and am very excited. That will be next. Elizabeth 2.0 will come after, and so is at least two years away. I think by the time I am done with this new book, and have that FUCK YES I FINISHED A BOOK feeling, which I haven't had in years, I will be ready to go back to Elizabeth, and make up.

My Life As An Author, or You Are #120,377 on Amazon.com

2011-07-27T20:56:00.002-05:00

So the first day out with the book, I sold ONE copy. That is one more than I've ever sold before in life, so success. It was kind of strange, and anti-climactic. I admit I was a little - not blue, but periwinkle - about the rank, which is soberingly direct. My only goal is to make the top 100,000. I believe in myself. If I felt sore at all, that was cured when I found a squirrel on the bike trail tonight that I'm pretty sure was suffering from a heat stroke. He couldn't walk (no car damage) and stared at me fuzzy while I picked him up and put him in the shade. He seemed like he was in a lot of pain. There's not much you can do about stroked squirrels or your Amazon rank. I put them to the side, and let the rest happen.

Independence Day & Date

2011-07-24T15:04:00.003-05:00

Today my book is available for purchase both in print and as an ebook.

You can find the print copy here, and the Kindle version here. Versions for the Nook and iPad will be available any day now.

For some reason I am 'Mr. Darby Gavin Harn' on the print page. Hmm.

It took four years for this day to happen. Not to write the book. That largely took about 6 months - let's say 9 or so with revisions. I finished the book and delivered it to my publisher three years ago. It sat in limbo ever since, with shifting release dates, all the way up to last fall. It even went up for sale online, but things didn't add up. No cover. It supposedly went out for review, but it didn't. Never available from the distributor that was distributing it. After a while, the obvious finally became clear. The book was never coming out.

If there was a reason for the publisher (named elsewhere on the site) not releasing the book on time or at all, it was never expressed. Not even when I asked. I got endless deflection, or I was simply ignored. After three years wasted on a book I was desperate to get past, I wasn't about to let it be four.

I felt like a fool. Like a failure. Every one kept asking me - where is the book? It's the kind of book you can buy in stores, right?

Part of me wanted to burn the book and never look back. I could have done that, easily. I could have tried to sell it elsewhere. I would have, I'm sure. That would have been another 2-3 years of my life. I had already wasted 3 years on a book I was desperate to get past. I wasn't about to let it be four.

So I jumped at the only other option, which was to do it myself. Five years ago - two - this would have been unthinkable. It would have been impractical from a cost standpoint, and career suicide. If you ever want to be taken seriously as a writer, and boy did I, you simply cannot self publish. You just don't do it.

I'm over what I'm supposed to or not supposed to do. I think most people are, and the fact that I walked out of a typical writer sob story into the digital revolution is extremely fortunate for me. So many others never had this option.

I am going my own way. Where it goes, I have no idea. Part of that is scary. Part of it is thrilling. If anyone wants to tag along, I don't bite.

Fantasy Magazine » News Right Fresh From Heaven

2011-01-24T19:40:00.000-06:00

Fantasy Magazine » News Right Fresh From Heaven

Please check out my latest story, up at Fantasy Magazine.

It's A Good Thing Baby Kal-El Didn't Land In Tehran

2010-10-17T11:15:00.001-05:00

Right Wing Goes To War With Comics And Cartoons Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

Shall I Smoke In Recline?

2010-09-25T15:27:00.000-05:00

Funny look at author photos.

The Buzz Log - Halley's Comet, Jupiter, and Space Tourism: Buzz Week in Review - Yahoo! Buzz

2010-09-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

Lots of good reasons to look up this week.

The Last Story of F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre - NYTimes.com

2010-09-13T20:25:00.000-05:00

Most bizzare, fascinating story I've read in ages.

The Book of Elizabeth @ Barnes & Noble

2010-09-11T19:58:00.000-05:00

The book is now up at Barnes and Noble now too. That image is just a place holder, by the way.

So Go On

2010-09-08T20:44:00.000-05:00

I've read a couple articles lately, including this one and one in the current issue of P&W, that essentially say: fiction is dead, books are dead, so write whatever the hell you want. Take chances - no one's going to read it anyway. It's basically a roundabout way of saying be yourself. It's disappointing that it takes the perceived irrelevance of fiction to inspire writers to do what they want; that may be why fiction is irrelevant to some people. Following the herd will always be an issue in art, as it is in life; art will always be 'dead.' It's died now several times since I've been alive.

My first novel comes out in November, and I have no expectation it will be any kind of success. It's definitely a book I'd write, one I'd like to read. My only hope is that I get the opportunity to keep writing the books I want to, and that somewhere in the storm of voices I'm heard.

Stupid Droid

2010-09-08T19:33:00.000-05:00

Got to watch this.

This Is Christianity?

2010-09-07T21:01:00.000-05:00

Pressure rises on pastor who wants to burn Quran - Yahoo! News

It occured to me today it's no accident we see a sudden wave of Islamophobia at the same time there's rampaging doubt in the far right on the President's faith and citizenship. There's an ugliness to all this which is unAmerican but sadly not unfamilair. We've seen this kind of junk before and we'll see it again, no doubt. The only solace is that we've shouted it down time and again. This pastor needs to listen to God when he prays.

Let's Talk About The Building That Really Matters At Ground Zero

2010-09-05T11:16:00.000-05:00

After a lot of stops and starts, construction at Ground Zero is on pace to have the memorial finished for the anniversary next year. Just last year, it seemed there may be nothing there for years. The image of the footprint of the building - realized again for the first time in nine years - brought me back to that day in a very visceral way. With all this controversy about the mosque, I wonder what next year will be like, with the memorial there to open our scars, or make them concrete. Will we bleed again next year? Will it let us move on finally?

In Space, No One Can Hear You Gurgle

2010-09-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

Scientists discover recipe for water in space - CNN.com

I don't know what's cooler - the possibilities this presents us for the future, or all the stories you could get out of this.

Book of Elizabeth Up For Pre-Order

2010-08-31T19:15:00.001-05:00

My first novel The Book Of Elizabeth is up for pre-order at Amazon. Check it out!

Yeah, That's Sarah Blasko

2010-08-28T21:52:00.001-05:00

Check out this really fun video of a the only band bigger (in members) than Arcade Fire, featuring a very Bowie-ish Sarah on background vocals.

Things You Google When Writing A Story

2010-08-27T22:38:00.003-05:00

flashing arrow signs

Xanadu lyrics

speed of rogue black hole

mail delivery on the aran islands

big style

kelly macdonald hot (what are you going to do?)

expedited passport

the serpent's lair

home abortion methods

Yes She Did

2010-08-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

Time Travel Already Exists - In Fiction

2010-08-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

Don't you know.

I like the talk about time as space in fiction - I've come to think of it that way too, especially in my own work. The Book of Elizabeth deals quite a bit with time. All the characters more or less come from different eras, none of which exist any longer, but of course still do; they occupy a space accessible only now by the reader.

I Spy...

2010-08-26T18:54:00.000-05:00

NASA’s Kepler Telescope Finds What May Be an Earth-Size Planet - NYTimes.com

Alienating Readers :Apex Book Company

2010-08-25T18:13:00.000-05:00

Interesting article about when things may get too political. I don't think you can ever leave politics completely out of anything - particularly writing - since you are after all, who you are.

Ultra-tiny frogs discovered living like faeries inside pitcher plants

2010-08-25T18:09:00.001-05:00

Tiny frogs will have their day.

News Right Fresh From Heaven

2010-05-07T21:35:00.002-05:00

Wrote (and now sold!) a short story for the first time in nearly three years (!) to Fantasy Magazine.

She's The Same Age as Your Mom

2010-04-11T18:20:00.001-05:00

To Dana Delany:

Don't ever stop. That is all.

The Delany Vineyard - More Magazine April 2010/007~14

Coming Into Focus

2010-03-09T20:45:00.000-06:00

A great post over at Slayalive unravels a significant part of Buffy Season 8:

Giles: A Retrospective - BuffyForums

Check it out.

If Only Angel Had Died In That Alley

2010-03-06T10:42:00.002-06:00

SPOILERS

The big reveal of Twilight (the Big Bad of Season 8) went down in Buffy this week, and you can read the fallout here. My only real gripe right now is that I wish they had never done a 'season 6' of Angel in comics. I always felt that the show ended on about as perfect a note as possible. The mystery over whether Angel (and crew) died in the alley in L.A. would have made the reveal of Twilight as Angel that much more shocking, to me at least. It would have sold some of the conflicting emotions Buffy experiences a bit better for some of the people that VIOLENTLY disagree with what happens in this issue.

For what it's worth, here are my two cents:

Buffy does try to kill him first. With a giant tree.

Giles and Angel know something we don't.

If this is Angel - IF - he's found a way around their 'perfect joy' issue (and daylight!) and I can totally buy that he doesn't really mind who dies because of it.

And it would be a lot more confusing/OMG/WTF? if this had been the first time we had seen him since that cut to black in the alley.

Lady Gaga

2009-11-28T10:55:00.003-06:00

I don't know why I'm so fascinated by Lady Gaga. She seems to want to out drag queen even the most gonzo drag queens out there. She has a great sense of humor - which I think is very necessary, otherwise she might come off a little stiff if she wasn't in on the joke - but her music and style is very smart at the same time. And I think she's so different. So many new musicians out there are hell bent on emulating each other. She is a walking blender of everything she enjoys.

Fictionaut

2009-10-22T09:19:00.002-05:00

After a LONG time of not posting, and then posting somewhere else, and then not posting there, I've decided to come back to the ranch and try to get this thing to kick over. I think I've spent so much time pushing novels up hills I've completely forgotten the language of anything short. That changed a little in August, when I attended the Summer Writer's Conference at Northwestern. I took a class called Parasitic Writing and was exposed to a form of writing I had never heard of: erasure poetry. The class was an eye opener in so many ways. In three short, swift hours we discussed the idea of plagarisim in art; if there is such a thing; fan fiction; You Tube and the art people create from found materials like movie trailers; it was all fascinating to me, because I've been interested for a long time in ideas like genre, and the idea of 'rebooting' something, which is especially common now in genre works like comic books and movies.

The class inspired me to write some short new pieces, and I've posted one I wrote that same day over on a new, fantastic site called Fictionaut. It's sort of like Facebook, but for writers. Go over and check it out.

You'll find my poem, Conjecture over there.

Do Change Your Channel

2009-03-13T12:26:00.002-05:00

Now broadcasting at The Piss Jitters.

More Troubles?

2009-03-11T13:32:00.002-05:00

I remember very vividly the week I spent in Belfast. It changed my head. I knew my family came from Ireland, knew of the Troubles, but not until a few weeks before I left, I didn't know my family came specifically from the north, and until I got there, I had no real idea of the reality there. The division of Belfast - material, spiritual - splits my head still. One thing that stood out to me most was a tour we took of the Catholic/Protestant neighborhoods - streets like Shankhill divided like some contested border - and the tour guide putting the difficulty down primarily to the relative poverty of the area. Up the road near Queens, the realtive prosperity of that part of town saw a healthier, less hostile environment. Indeed, the Celtic Tiger gave all Ireland a reason to look forward and not behind; the economy exploded, and with each year, it seemed the Troubles were finally over.

Maybe not.

Ireland's economy, like the world's, has collapsed and just like that, the IRA - or some semblence of it - is back to killing. This time, though, it seems that neither Protestants nor Catholics are willing to let the madness of a few pull every one under. The news here in America sadly reads the same way - a man just killed ten people in Alabama, a student walked into a school in Germany and killed nine. Maybe it's not the global economic crisis; maybe it's just coincidence. Does money salve political wounds? Religious? When the pot is empty, do we fill it with anger? Hate?

Darby Watches The Watchmen

2009-03-08T12:44:00.002-05:00

SPOILERS follow

“Watchmen” is really two movies: one for people like me, who remember the earthquake it was for comic books in 1987, when it first appeared, and one for people just looking for a good movie. In a lot of ways, it succeeds on both levels; in a lot of other ways, it doesn’t.
“Watchmen” arrived in 1987 as comic book that for the first time in the history of comics looked on the idea of superheroes as a real thing; what if in the real world these people actually existed, and what would happen? I first read it at 13, finding it on the bottom shelf of the comic stand in the back of the Cigar Store down on Sycamore – this when comics were still sold outside comic shops – and I didn’t understand it, but knew a comic – a funny book – with blood and murder and various other adult things was not normal. I found a lot of books there that were an absolute awakening to me, and make me feel very lucky to have been that age, at that time: “Swamp Thing,” “Sandman,” even “Cinder & Ashe” which no one remembers but made its own impression. I couldn’t afford any of them, only the Marvel ones that were still 75 cents, so I stood at the rack and read them in the store. I read the complete novel in college, appreciating it fully for the first time. It made a lasting impression on me, like it has so many others; I found the idea of the meta-textual here first rather than in the novels of M. John Harrison or David Foster Wallace. The book within a book idea appears in some of my own work, especially “The Book of Elizabeth,” which is to do entirely with a book inside a book.
That is nothing new, but in 1987, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons set off an earthquake. “Watchmen” is to comics what “Ulysses” is to the novel; after that, everything changed. For the movies, though, “Watchmen” the film is just a good movie that could have been better. The basic plot revolves around this: someone is killing masked superheroes. Except superheroes are retired, by government mandate. And it’s 1985. And Nixon is still President. And the Cold War is getting hot, really fast. It seems someone is trying to make sure superheroes are not going to be around to stop Armageddon. And so at first it is a detective story – the Sherlock here an anti-hero called Rorschach, after the ink blot test (his mask features a ever changing menagerie of patterns) – and it leads him to the now retired members of the Watchmen, who he fears may be in danger. As it progresses from character to character – the Batman clone Nite Owl, the Punisher-esque Comedian and then to the Superman like Dr. Manhattan, it becomes alternately a love story, a war movie, and a 1950’s sci-fi movie where the good scientist gets transformed into something horrible. It’s a lot of different movies, none of them ever really congealing into something whole, other than the strange, pleasant shock of seeing Batman – I mean, Nite Owl – overweight and lonely. Of Superman distant and removed from humanity because they can’t ever understand what it is to be a god. I always thought the book would be better served by the time and detail of say a 12 part mini-series on HBO, and the film only confirms that. Zach Snyder does achieve what was once thought impossible, putting the book on screen; he manages to transplant the thread of the book in its – mostly – entirety to film, salvaging a myriad of the book’s most treasured scenes.
That so much of Dan and Laurie survived surprised and thrilled me, because it was my favorite part of the book. Except for the sex scene. That was laugh out loud bad. Showgirls bad. I also loved Manhattan’s trip through time and space, which with Bill Crudup’s spooky, detached narration, exists in a small, poetic way in the film. The performances are exceptional in some cases – Jackie Lee Haley is hypnotic as Rorschach – and in some cases not so much. As lovely as Malin Ackerman is, she never really gets to the bottom of Laurie, who in the book is a lot more of a live wire.
The film clings to the original 80’s setting, and the Cold War fear; as someone who grew up then and remembers “The Day After,” it strikes a chord. I wonder though if it would for anyone who grew up in a world without the constant thread of nuclear annihilation. After the film, Ben and my uncle PJ spent some time discussing this. I wonder if the film would have been better served by a more modern setting. “The Dark Knight” proved last year that ‘comic book’ movies can and do speak to the moral complexities of the present. The Watchmen, as it is, proves only a love letter to a book and a moment that seems squarely in the past. The World Trade Center still exists there, and its presence in the film – gratuitous at times – only speaks volumes to the schism between the film’s setting and now. The towers cannot ever exist in film or any art now as merely themselves; that they do in this film, and that they survive the devastation of the ending only reinforces my feeling that Snyder missed an opportunity to not just produce a slavish, religious adaptation to the source material but to advance it.
What if the Cold War was replaced by the War on Terror? What if Dr. Manhattan single handedly won the Iraq War instead of Vietnam? What if the Keene Act came out of a government seeking to quash superheroes whose independence and resources may be interpreted as non-state actors? What if Ozymandias plot to bring peace to a world on the brink of nuclear holocaust instead sought to bring peace to a world locked in the gravity of endless war? Of course the book still speaks to us, despite its setting; the film speaks to many different things, and never in one voice. It is a big film that in so many ways demands to be a small film; a tiny, subversive meditation on the lives of people who cannot live outside of their masks.

A New Day

2009-01-20T19:52:00.000-06:00

Get On Your Boots

2009-01-19T18:52:00.002-06:00

The first single from U2's new album (finally!!!) is live. My first impressions: they are back to experimenting.

To Jump In The River And Drown

2009-01-17T18:43:00.002-06:00

An absolutely essential and remarkable conversation with Battlestar Galactica creator Ron Moore and the writers of last night's season premiere. That he gives this much in an interview is a gift, and so is the show. It astounds, as always, and the sadness over its passing is only countered by the joy in knowing that it is getting the chance to end on its own terms. So many shocks last night. Earth. Dee. Ellen. Kara. I have my own theory of it all - the Grand Unifying Theory of BSG I guess - that I'm still formulating, but Ben had a theory a while back about Earth and Cylons that seems to have been dead on. Go read the article, and if you haven't seen it, or have never seen the show, go rent, buy or steal it on DVD. Enrich your life.

From The No Life Dept.

2008-12-19T09:26:00.002-06:00

Yes, Darby Harn is still alive.

I am snowed in for the moment so I decided to take a break from a West Wing marathon (how good was this show?) to update this increasingly pointless blog. I am thinking of wiping the slate clean in the new year and starting a new one. I will be wiping many slates in 2009. I will be that guy on the corner offering to clean your windows for some change except I will be cleaning your slates. Or maybe just mine. I tend to get stuck in the mud when it comes to other people's slates and by now I've said the word slate too much.

I work all day, and write all night, and I have no life. In college I studied all the time and worked my ass off to get through because I had to. At work I study all the time and work my ass off because I have to. It's not easy for me and it never has been. The trade off is I have nothing else and when it comes to everything else I missed the meeting. And it costs me, exponentially, the further I go.

So, yay. At least there are two new Kate Winslet movies this month.

Congrats to Matt and Lisa!!!

2008-09-15T20:41:00.003-05:00

On the birth of their boy William. Congrats to two of the best people I know. All the best. I wonder how jealous Howie is...

You're A Shining Star

2008-09-15T20:36:00.003-05:00

The first ever picture of a planet in a solar system that is not ours:

The skinny. This is just the beginning.

The Last Batman Story

2008-08-07T22:49:00.003-05:00

Newsarama offers a really good op-ed on why the next Batman film could - should be - called The Dark Knight Returns, and also why the Joker should come back. And be recast. Check it out. I think it may have persuaded me from my position that recasting the character would be difficult in the least. I don't know, however, that a literal translation of Frank Miller's Batman into Nolan's is possible or even feasible; that said, the article is good food for thought.

I've always thought Batman's story has to end. His success prevents it of course. Even if Nolan completes his trilogy, which is what we seem to be in for, Warner Brothers will want and rightfully so as many films as they can get. And they should make Batman films to their hearts content. This article suggests a great idea: allowing myriad artists take their own whacks at the character, in various films. Batman has proven his elasticity. But since we're talking about the first true, complete - possibly - Batman cinema story, it must end and let there be an ending.

Interesting article on the true cultural impact of the film. Of course, the inevitable backlash against it has already begun; anything this big cannot go unchallenged. This article makes good points about the film's flaws. I think it misses the boat on a few things - the direction is all over the place? - but it also links to some other discussions which again are good food for your brain. There is a lot of trying to make the film fit somewhere - superhero genre, crime genre, etc. Seems it either transcends all of them or just lands outside one or more of them, depending on who you talk to.

The Batman's True Identity Revealed

2008-08-01T18:23:00.004-05:00

He's George W. Bush. Apparently. Andrew Kalvaan departs from his rocker in the Wall St. Journal in a suprisingly deluded way and I just have to put my two cents in.

The Dark Knight does not have a pro-Bush or pro-neo conservative stance. If you think it concerns the war on terror, and that is a legitimate argument, and if you think Batman=Bush, which is not legit, then here's why you cannot walk away from this film thinking it somehow legitimizes the last 7 years:

Batman fails to take the Joker seriously until it is too late.

Batman fails to kill the Joker when given the opportunity, and the justification to do so.

Batman 'extradites' a non-national from a foreign country where he has no jurisdiction.

Batman abuses his power and technology to spy on his own people.

Batman's actions only embolden his enemy.

You can find a correlative for everyone of those items in the last 7 years, and none of them are positive, and none of them presented that way in the film. The film ends with a adacious message - good men do the wrong thing for the right reason. Only in W's most fluffy fantasy land does he think this is what has happened in real life.

Groovy Things

2008-07-31T23:32:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is Irish Fest in Waterloo.

Neil Gaiman is writing a 2 part Batman story for the comic series next year. Apparently it will bridge the gap between the current R.I.P. storyline, which I'm lost with, and the future of the character, which seems destined to be different than the status quo. The only thing cooler than this is if they found water on Mars.

Oh, yeah. Water exists on Mars. Also, liquid (not water) is flowing freely on Titan, Saturn's enigmatic moon.

Hell No, They Didn't Just Cut Emily

2008-07-30T23:17:00.004-05:00

Season 5 of Project Runway just got WAY less interesting for me. Okay, so the dress didn't really work. But why must they always cut the cute ones? Sigh. I think I liked her so much because she reminds of two friends who have somehow been genetically spliced together in a seamless, beautiful fashion.

Auf wiedersehen Emily.

Who's Up Next?

2008-07-27T13:36:00.003-05:00

So given the Dark Knight's insane run at the box office (the 'will it beat Titanic?' murmurs have begun) it's inevitable there will be a third. The big question is who the big bad will be. It seems from the film they intended for Heath Ledger to reprise the Joker in some capacity next time around, but as we all know, that will (probably) not be the case.

Geoff Boucher writes an open letter in the LA Times today to Chris Nolan offering some advice. Some of it is good. By process of elimination, he id's Catwoman as the only logical choice. I agree with this. Harley Quinn might make some sense if they attempt to follow the Joker thread (recasting just doesn't seem proper), but of all the Batman's rogues, she is the most sensible in Nolan's realistic concept of the character. However, Boucher's choice of actress (I'll let you click the link to see) doesn't do anything for me. Not that she's a bad actress, but what Catwoman needs, like the Joker, is someone who approaches it with a take no one ever considered. Give it a read, it's interesting, and so are the comments.

We're Going To Be Doing This For A Long Time

2008-07-20T11:11:00.004-05:00

SPOILERS follow for 'The Dark Knight'

Right now there are a lot of hyperbolic reviews and commentary swirling around The Dark Knight, and specifically Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, to the extent that you wonder how any film could possibly live up those kind of expectations. This movie does. You're never left wondering how, or why; it is grand cinema, from artists in their prime, and in one tragic case, the final furious statement of a gifted actor. TDK is not the Citizen Kane of comic book movies; to call it a comic book movie, or place it in that context is diminishing it. The film actually operates primarily in the crime movie genre, and has more in common with films like The Godfather, in its bredth and scope (a staggering cast of characters, multiple plot arcs, the city as a character - and Chicago - I mean, um, Gotham - has never been so interesting) and also Heat, which it actually has the most in common with.

TDK is also not the Empire Strikes Back of modern movies. That is primarily because its predecessor, Batman Begins, is not Star Wars. Begins was a great movie, hampered by certain comic book conceits that this movie does away with entirely. This movie, TDK, is Star Wars. It changes your head, and makes everything from here on out - its successors, both imitators and its own sure sequels - tethered to its accomplishments. One can't help but think that Christopher Nolan will find himself unable to top this; you won't fault him for it, because Heath Ledger sets such a high bar that all anyone else can do is stand there and look at it. I could go on about the intricacies of his performance - the manic tongue, the voice, electricity he generated anytime he's on screen - but it's simple enough to say he is the Joker, and his Joker is the strangest, scariest and funniest of all of them.

He overshadows many other fantastic performances, Christian Bale of course, but more importantly, Aaron Eckhart, who is actually the focal point of the movie as new Gotham DA Harvey Dent. We all know Harvey's future, but it's no less tragic to watch a good man brought so low. In TDK, good men do the wrong things for the right reasons. They spy. They kidnap. They take money from the mob to pay hospital bills. They lie. They fake their deaths, even to their own families. They take the fall for someone else. We live in a world where good men have been doing bad things for years now. You reap what you sow. In TDK, all that Batman has wrought, for good, and for bad, comes due and he reaps the whirlwind.

I haven't yet mentioned the action sequences. Normally in summer movies that's the first thing out, and that tells you what kind of movie this is. There is one stunning one, a chase between a semi and cop cars and eventually the Batmobile. The Batpod, the bike you see in the trailers, makes a stunning debut and does some gravity defying things that will please your geek soul. Also, enjoy the IMAX eye candy, which even in regular 35mm invites vistas you've rarely seen. Bravo.

Kansas City

2008-07-12T10:26:00.003-05:00

In all the excitement of June, with the floods and other distractions, I never got around to sharing some photos of the trip my brother Aaron took to Kansas City early in the month, to see my aunt Charlene. We were there a very busy 3 days, the highlight of which had to be the World War I musuem downtown.

The dominant feature of the memorial is this 30 story monolithic statue that stands on a high hill overlooking downtown. You can go up in a very antiquated elevator (it dates from 1926) to the top and see an extraordinary view of KC. This image in particular inspired me to relocate my next novel from Iowa to Kansas. It also inspired me to research the memorial, which led me to the only-interesting-to-me bit of trivia that the nuclear holocaust film 1983, The Day After, featured the memorial in its coda. What was left of it anyway. That movie made a huge impression on me as it did most people who saw it, and I found myself remembering all sorts of 80's Cold War trivia - 'This is only a test. In the event of an actual attack...' - and I realized in some way this next novel is about those days, and those demons.

Anyways. The coolest thing about the memorial was not even the tower, but this:

Two of these sphinxes face each other, theirs faces covered by their wings, shielding them from the past and the future. I must have stood and stared at them for like ten minutes.

This is a view of downtown, looking down on Union Station, a gorgeous old train station that is now a musuem. We viewed a bizarre but fascinating human body exhibit there that showcased the preserved remains of people who donated their bodies to science. Hopefully I will get a chance to go back soon; my friend Sugu is coming back from Japan to KC for a few weeks in August. I'd love to go back and visit my aunt, as well as do some more research now I know I'm setting the book here.

162 Days

2008-07-02T21:38:00.003-05:00

I had the strangest dream last night; it went on forever (no doubt a few seconds), the longest sustained I recall having recently. I was in Germany, on vacation or something, with my mother - or my father, I wasn't sure; they seemed to be in between parents and would change with the course of the dream. At the end they were old and unrecognizable. Germany, I can't explain. We were visiting some sort of musuem or gallery. We walked around and someone told us we had spent 162 days inside. A beautiful woman with green eyes said something to me on the way out. She may have been the one to mention the 162 days, but I'm not sure. She spoke with an accent and seemed intent on getting a lot of words in as we left. We went outside, into a cobblestone street draped with banners for some festival, and that was it. The dream has stayed with me all day, mostly because it makes no sense. I used to have very vivid dreams; there is one from when I was 15 that I remember to this day. Not so much anymore. In some ways you feel like you miss something; and in others, you don't. Some were nightmares that followed you around in the day.

Anyways. Gathering lots of bits for the next novel. Soon she will start to coalesce and take form. Maybe this weekend and I can get to the first chapter.

The Alchemy of Stone

2008-07-01T20:30:00.003-05:00

Good friend Kat's novel The Alchemy of Stone is due soon, so you should go pick up a copy here at Amazon, where she also has a blog. The book is fantastic; it's strange, disconcerting and features weird robot sex. But don't take it from me. Publisher's Weekly gave it a starred review. Scroll down a bit to see it.

Congrats Kat!

Update: Justine Larbalestier has a fun post on her blog about the art of blurbing as it specifically relates to Kat's new book, which Justine really likes.

Mars Can Support Life. Like Right Now.

2008-06-26T21:01:00.003-05:00

For reals.

Dig it. The universe will always amaze. I suppose I should say something about me. Not much to say. My mom is very sick. I'm working 10 and 12 hour days. Gathering material for my next novel. They form, these books, like planets almost; gathering lose dust from every corner of creation, accreting until something round and significant emerges. Sometimes something bigger runs into them and they go boom or become something better. Sometimes the process takes years. Decades.

I seriously do not have time to be building novels on a planetary scale. Message to Darby: think moons. Asteroids are also nice.