So I just finished watching the live action remake of Ghost in the Shell.
Except, it's not really a "remake". It's very much a different creature that explores different issues entirely from the original. And I *loved* the original.
How do I feel about the new film? Conflicted. I think I would've been much, much happier if they had just done the original film as a live-action movie instead of what they did do (which was to create something new basically from the ground-up).
But that's not to say it was bad. It was different, and I wouldn't hesitate to say it certainly wasn't better than the original, but since they didn't and this is what we have, I'm not dissatisfied, really.
I loved a lot of what they did do (Battou in particular was fantastic), including a lot of the actor choices they made (the Old Man was spot on in every way), and while I really, really wish they'd have picked a Japanese actress for the Major, Scarlet Jo did a pretty damn good job.
Other than that? I'm going to sit with the movie for awhile, examine it in my mind and my memories.
August-Us!
Sad thing? That's not even the worst pun I've uttered this *week*.
Anyway! It is August, for all of us, and life pushes forward with its unrelenting energy. I stuck my head in at my Patreon page to thank all my supporters (you support me on Patreon, right? 'Cause if you do, you are officially the best... if you don't, that's okay, but it does keep you from being officially the best), and now I'm pondering what to put over here that's new and different.
Basically, I'm thinking a little about restructuring the reward tiers in my Patreon. I worry, first, that it's been very hard to fulfill some of the higher tiers on a consistent basis... I really like giving patrons access to my short stories before everyone else, but as I move towards doing more novels that's going to become more and more difficult (especially heading into the Christmas season!). Nothing definitive yet, but definitely wheels turning.
I'm also thinking about pre-scheduling a few posts a week, just to keep content on the website coming out at a steady pace. I'd really like to manage more than once a week, but since I only have a few days "off" (I mean, days that I'm not focusing every spare moment on writing instead of the *job* of writing), that can be tricky.
Anyway! That's it for now... more as developments develop! Hope everyone is having an amazing summer!
Busy Weekends = Good Weekends!
So it was a busy weekend... sadly, not from a writing perspective (I got absolutely nothing done!), but otherwise it was quite lovely. Got to see lots of good friends, played some enjoyable games, consumed some enjoyable media, and didn't sleep anywhere near enough.
Truly, a blessing on all counts.
I have tomorrow off from my "pays the editing bills" job, and I do plan on getting a lot of writing done then, as well as maybe dabbling a bit in some of the new Mass Effect game (I have low, low expectations, but we will see if it meets those!). Maybe seeing a movie tomorrow night, if the fancy strikes me!
But also getting at least the first chapter done. I've spent too long on it for it not to be done yet!
Chapter 1s are always Really Hard!
I've been considering why the first chapter of a book is always so hard to write. Usually, I don't bother: I mean, I bother, but I do so by writing 2 chapters that I immediately cut afterwards, starting the story well after the point I start writing.
This is an effective workaround (although it is *super* frustrating to cut those 2 chapters consistently), but it doesn't get to the crux of why writing that first chapter is so hard.
And basically, it's because that first chapter must sell the entire book on its own.
In fact, that first *paragraph* kinda has to do that.
In fact in fact, the first *sentence* more or less has to do that. And writing that first sentence? That's basically impossible.
Well, obviously it's not impossible. But it is really hard, and somewhat discouraging.
Thankfully... I'm done! I have written the first chapter of my new book, and I like it.
Now all that remains to be seen is if, in 2 more chapters... I end up cutting this one completely.
Ah, writing. ^_^
New Story went Up!
Of course, you already know that (because you frequently check the "Short Stories" section of this blog, right?).
Now we reach something of a crossroads. See, the problem is that I am running out of backlogged short fiction. Lots of longer work, but short stuff? I haven't written a good short story since my submission to the Toronto Star back in February. And I'm concerned about posting chapters or excerpts from my longer work, since some publishers want only completely unpublished work (and they have every right to request it!).
Oh well!I'll figure something out. I have the entire month of July to do so!
Until then, I hope you enjoy(ed) "Articles of War". It's not great, I'm not 100% on the ending, but I did enjoy writing that one and I'm pretty proud of the end result!
New Story Going Live Soon!
Just so everyone knows, I'll be posting another free short story soon.
If you were a Patron of mine on Patreon, you'd have already read it of course... but patience is its own reward, I guess?
Anyway, I'll let everyone read it soon! Hope you enjoy it!
Biking to Work!
I've just started (technically, re-started, more on that in a moment) biking to work every day. I enjoy it, and hopefully it will help get me in better shape.
I used to bike to work over a decade ago, in a different city at a different job, and I enjoyed that a lot. Also gives me time to listen to my podcasts again, and that'll be nice. Plus, I sorta suspect that the heavier I am, the more difficulty I have writing... healthy mind in a healthy body and all that.
Anyway! I still have a short story to put up on this site, and since my plans after work for today and tomorrow fell through, I should have time to do that!
How is it Halfway through June Already!?
Blargh!
Okay, okay, it's not all bad. Started writing the next Tintian, that's nice. This one will be loosely based on "The Shooting Star", and I'm already pretty excited about it!
And I have a short story written for my lovely Patreon supporters, which is excellent news... just gotta put in the work to get that on this here fancy website!
And tomorrow is Father's Day in Canada (or is that Fathers Day? Could work either way, really... might be Fathers' Day, even!), which means spending a bit of time with ye olde family, which will be nice!
But holy snakes, does time every slip away...
Tough Being A Creative...
Yeah, yeah, I know. Cry me a river, you bleeding-heart-liberal-snowflake-whatever. Being an artist is tough.
It is, though. I mean, many things are difficult. I imagine being a head-in-the-sand conservative is very difficult for some people. But being an artist is my thing, and at times it's very tough.
For example: last week I had the... pleasure?... of meeting a fellow writer. A very successful writer, by all accounts. This gentleman is full-time, has published 17 books (and is working on number 18), and, sadly, is not a very nice human being.
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, I didn't witness him kick any puppies. But he had that loud, brash, forward-facing arrogance about everything that just oozed "I'm so good at this writing thing, and you never, ever will be."
Me: "Hey, do you know any good editors? Mine, unfortunately, is too busy these days."
Him: "Oh, sure! My editor (name drops famous editor) is great, but is booked solid for the next 8 months and costs $12,000 per book."
Me: "... huh. I guess a 'no' wouldn't have worked?" (Out loud, I said "Oh, that's too bad" because I'm not a jerk)
And it just kinda sucks. You want to believe that people who succeed are nice, ya know? That they work hard, and therefore understand how hard it is to do what it is we do... but then you meet somebody like this guy, who's an arrogant jerk-face, and you think "Right. These are the kinds of jerks that make money, not the nice ones."
Oh well. Nothing I can do about him except try to become successful so that there are a few more not-jerks in the general writer-population, I suppose.
Hope your week was great!
Sunday = Writing Day
Sundays are rapidly becoming my favourite days to write. Mostly, because they're completely free (aside from chores, of course), but also because there doesn't seem to be much expectation that I do anything besides write!
So today I'm going to go downstairs to my study, pull out some source material, and do some research followed by cranking out 5,000 words.
So it is written, so it shall be done. Hope all of you are having great weekends too!
Back to Tintian?
You know, I think I'm going to get started on the next Tintian.
The long and short of it is that I'm not great at short stories, and I really don't enjoy writing them. I've done a bunch, some are pretty good (if I do say so myself), but I think it's time to go back to what I really enjoy.
And I think Tintian Book 2 might be a good place to get back into it. Thankfully, I have all day off tomorrow, so plenty of time to research, outline, and start getting down to brass tacks!
Anyway, more as the story develops!
Happy Long Weekend!
I love weekends. The time I have away from work is the best time for me to write, and since I now have far more finite writing opportunity, I do treasure the chances I have to put fingers to keyboard.
Long weekends are weird, though. It almost feels wrong to use the extra time for writing, since the whole point of a long weekend is to get some substantial time off (this will be the first time I have 3 consecutive days off since I started the most recent paying job).
Ah well! Will still write a bunch, and I need to edit a short story for the Patreon subscribers!
Anyway! Hope any Canadian readers are enjoying their Monday off as much as I hope to!
Didn't Win the Toronto Star Competition
No real surprise there, to be honest. I think my story is strong (and, to be 100% frank, better than the story that did win), but it's pew-pew-lasers rather than slow, thoughtful fiction.
Nothing against those that did win! They're great stories, but not my taste. YMMV and all that!
Anyway, that means I have a story I can send out for publication, and I *think* it's gonna go to Asimov. So that's exciting! Means it'll be 6-7 months before I hear back, but no time like the present and all that.
Hope everyone is having a great Thursday!
"Moana" makes me cry like a baby...
... a tired, hungry baby.
But seriously. I've watched the whole movie 3 times thus far, plus at least a dozen times replaying my favourite parts, and I cry every time. It's ridiculous.
I really hope something I write at some point can have this kind of impact on people. That would be... amazing.
Ad Astra 2017
Well, among a very busy weekend I managed to spend a few hours at Ad Astra 2017.
It was an interesting experience. I met some nice people, and overall it was a positive experience, but I very much felt like an outsider looking in.
I happened to run into another author-friend of mine (two, actually, but one of them is a professional, paid author who won the "Writers of the Future" award a few years back), and that pretty much cemented how little I'm a part of the "in" crowd at these sorts of things. Still, I attended some great talks and I'm definitely glad I went.
Oh! I attended a panel that had 5 female authors! That was pretty damn amazing.
There was a seminar on defining "Space Opera", and that alone was probably worth the price of admission. I do hope that next year they spread out the sci-fi panels, though.
Anyway! Enough of that. Looking forward to getting fingers back on keys tomorrow!
Holy Snakes it's been awhile!
So... tomorrow I may be attending the biggest sci-fi writing conference in Canada. It's called "Ad Astra", and it takes place around this time every year in northern Toronto. Bit of a drive (it'll probably take me about 2 hours to get there, if traffic cooperates), but I'm looking forward to it!
What I'm NOT looking forward to is the 3 sci-fi centred talks I'd really like to attend all taking place at the same time! That officially sucks.
I also have to decide if I want to go to Sanderson's talk immediately after whichever one of the 3 talks I attend. I think I'd like to see him live? He seems interesting. It'll depend if I can think of any good questions, I suppose?
Anyway, that's what I'm up to tomorrow! Anyone out there doin' anything interesting?
Precious, Precious Feedback!
A lot of the time, we writers sort of work in a vacuum.
I mean, I spend a LOT of time working in a vacuum, if you consider that the majority of my longer works are space operas that take place in the cold, dark, unforgiving void. But that, of course, isn't what i mean.
What I mean is that a lot of time I write something, or update something, or post something, and it goes out into the universe... and nothing.
Thankfully, the reviews for "Tintian and the King's Claw" have been very positive, and the few responses I got when I published "Flying Sparks" were all very nice. And that's not to say I don't appreciate those! I do.
But it's also nice when somebody sits down and critiques my work. In this case, a gentleman came across this very website, and made comments regarding the layout, the format, and asked some very thoughtful questions about what I do and why.
It was great! I don't have all the answers yet, but it is a damn fine thing to know that my work is getting some notice from the wider world. Huzzah!
I'm going to spend some time this week considering some of the feedback he gave me, and really thinking about the direction I'd like to take this whole "writing website" in. Maybe there will be some changes, maybe I'll keep things the way they are now but streamline or improve them in other ways... but either way, I'm really glad that person got in touch with his suggestions.
If you have any feedback, do let me know! You can find my contact information up in the "About" page, or you can leave a comment here on this very post! Thanks folks!
Back to Life, Back to Reality...
Ah, Mondays. For many of us, the busiest day of the week as we scramble to catch up to the work "missed" over two days of relaxation.
For others of us (like, say, writers!), just another day to sit down at the keyboard and crank out more work.
I'm still polishing that story I finished last week. I'm unhappy with it, which usually means it needs a bit more time. At least I figured out the math problems... at least I hope so. Gotta double check that I've changed the numbers throughout the entire piece. Went from a 300 year voyage to a 12,000 year one (to a star significantly further away).
Also dreaming about the next story (as I frequently do). I want to write something more... explode-y. This story is a slow-burn thinker, and I miss writing sorta-silly, action-packed stories. Means I'll have to go for a longer format, but to be honest I've always felt a bit more comfortable with longer stories anyway.
Probably just because it takes much longer before the story is ready to edit. And I do hate editing...
Anyway! Back to the grindstone! Hope everyone is having a great month!
Happy long weekend, if you have one!
One of the upsides to being a writer is the joy of setting your own hours.
One of the downsides is that you don't get the same joy from long weekends that most people get... I don't run usual 9-5 hours, and I certainly don't work only Monday-Friday, so the only difference a long weekend means for me is that any chores I was planning to do today ain't gettin' done.
But that's okay! Everyone deserves some "me" time, whenever they can!
Stories are coming along, still waiting for the copy of my novel back from my editor (who I imagine, or at least hope!, is enjoying her long weekend!), but things are still moving in a vaguely forward direction.
Anyway! Hope long weekend, everyone! Try and get some sunshine, if you can!
Second Draft of a New Novel Finished!
So I've gotten my second draft of my most recent novel edited. Now I just have to go through the editorial feedback, tighten up and correct the mistakes, and then submit!
Exciting!
In other news, I'm also polishing up a short story for submission. Basically, next week is going to be very, very busy! Phew! And now I have to decide whether to work on some more short stories, or write some long ones.
I also have a few books I want to read (or, as I believe most writers refer to it: "research"), including one about a shark that eats memories (I've been told it's good), and Scalzi's most recent book ("Collapsing Empire"). Might wait for that series to be finished before I start it... but probably not. ^_^
Anyway! Hurray for progress!