Anathem - Mini Review

A richly detailed book coming in at roughly 900 pages (plus an extensive glossary and several "calcas" or lessons), Anathem by Neal Stephenson, is not a lightweight read in either the physical or mental sense of that phrase. This hefty book will challenge you.

Set in an alternate "cosmi" (universe), the world of Arbre is divided between secular powers and a complicated system of "concents" (monasteries) devoted to the study of scientific and philosophical truths. Although borrowing heavily from the milieu of medieval monasticism, the monks here are, for the most part, not religious. They're closer in attitude to the thinkers of ancient Greece than the more familiar devout who worshipped God and (as a bonus) preserved western thought and knowledge during our own dark ages.

I spent the first quarter of Anathem trying to sort out a myriad of monastic orders, exotic names, and philosophies of truth and science. There's a lot to keep track of and I didn't click into the book right away. But once I did, I found that I was in for a stimulating ride.

There is a basic and workable story at the heart of Anathem (visitors from another cosmi wreak social and military havoc on Arbre), but the real meat of the book comes from numerous and lengthy discussions of on the nature of existence.

This may not sound very action-packed (it isn't), but it is quite interesting and stimulating in that it makes you consider topics that you probably haven't thought about since staying up way too late in college.

If you're looking for the SF equivalent of a beach read, move on. If you want to be challenged and get your mental gears turning again, read Anathem.

R.I.P. Captain Lou

One of my very first writing jobs was as headwriter for the live-action portions of the infamous "Super Mario Brothers Super Show". It was something of a grueling "trial by fire" experience but also a lot of fun. We had great guest stars on each episode (Eve Plumb, Donna Douglas, Maurice LaMarche, and Cyndi Lauper, to name a few) but the real heart of the show, the man who made it fun, was Lou Albano.

Gregarious, lovable, self-deprecating and kind -- he was a hoot to be around and kept the mood up when we were struggling under crushing deadlines. He also (gasp!) actually appreciated the show's writers and that we were doing our best to give him funny things to say. I'll always think well of him for that.

Rest in peace, Captain Lou. You were a good guy and I salute you.

A Productive Week

Been a busy little robot this week.

Got my Script Frenzy screenplay over to the agent on Thursday. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Hope he likes it. I changed the name from "Timer" to "Nick of Time" for reasons stated earlier. Here's how I pitched it:

"Aimed at a youth audience this is a "flexible" script -- existing comfortably, imo, in a number of niches ranging from a big budget live action/cgi extravaganza through a Nick or D.C. original movie (personally, I'd love to see it as an anime style flick in the vein of Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle", but we can talk about that)."

Agents always ask which niche you see the script falling into -- I'm guessing it helps them decide how they're going to position it. You'll note that I'm not going public with any of the script's content as I'm a little superstitious/paranoid about describing that kind of thing until the agent's had a chance to look at it and it's out on the market.

Got a significant chunk of my outline done for "Caden Brave", my 2009 NaNo effort. All of the main characters are laid out. They're archetypal, but that's how I roll.

Twenty more days until the National Novel Writing Month kicks off. If you're still thinking about joining in, now's the time to sign up and start working on your outline. If you decide to go for it, look me up under the author name of "sillyroger". We can be "buddies" and motivate/annoy each other into action during November.

And finally, got my second Scooby script approved. These are a hoot to write and I hope the kids enjoy watching the show as much as I do writing it.

30 Days and Counting

The craziness that is National Novel Writing Month starts at midnight on November 1st, 2009. If you've ever flapped your lips about "someday writing a novel", then I'm putting you on notice that someday is almost here. Sign up and write the damned thing! Seriously though, it's a lot of fun and a great kick in the pants for those who (like me) thrive on a deadline. I've enjoyed and benefited from it enough that this will be my third year of cranking out middle grade November prose. Check out their site and then ask yourself, "Other than the fact that I'm a lazy mook, why wouldn't I do this?"

In other news --

• Finished my second draft of "Magic Man" my 2008 NaNo project and have sent it off to trusty beta reader JZ. On balance, I'm quite pleased with it but I sure he'll find plenty of wtf things for me to fix.

• I should be finished with my 2009 Script Frenzy effort "Timer" by the end of this weekend. I've got to finesse the final scene (to make sure that all the main characters get their due) and will probably change the title as 1) there was a recent indie film by the same name and 2) the original reasons for giving my main character that nickname never really made it into the script. Then it's off to the agent.

That's it for now. Get busy on that novel outline!

Dragon in Chains - Mini Review

A fascinating look into a world that is largely ignored in western fantasy fiction, Daniel Fox's "Dragon in Chains" is a welcome detour into the realm of Chinese culture and mythology. Fox masterfully weaves several complicated storylines, each centered on a different young man -- the boy Emperor fleeing a deadly rebel General, a jade miner with supernatural strength and endurance, and a maimed river rat who uses his mind and magical chains to keep a great dragon imprisoned beneath the waves. The world Fox invites us to explore is so detailed and vividly described that (to use the old cliche) it really does feel like you're there -- in other words, a superb "escape read".

My only complaint about this otherwise excellent book is that the ending comes on too quickly for my taste with the exciting climax literally occurring on the very last page. I don't insist on an epilogue, but I do like to know how everyone ends up and we don't really get that here. In this case the abrupt ending appears to be a little too obvious setup for a sequel -- but, hey, that's okay as I'm very much looking forward to returning to this fascinating world. Recommended.

Vampires and Sex

Author Neil Gaiman has some interesting thoughts on the subject in this EW interview.

Caine Black Knife - Mini Review

"Caine Black Knife" is the third in the series of books centered on the adventures of actor/unstoppable assassin, Hari Michaelson, and is a must read for fans of talented author Matthew Stover. However...

Lacking the "big story" component of the first two books (fate of two worlds hanging in the balance, etc), CBK is also a bit of a jumble -- mixing a present day mini-adventure with a series of flashbacks about how Hari made his bones and became the mega star, Caine.

Personally, I would have preferred it if Mr. Stover had stuck to one story or the other as, for me, this style of back and forth storytelling tends to be more distracting than enjoyable -- just not my thing. And because of these flashbacks CBK has the same sort of mild "oh, that's why" feel that you get from reading the appendixes in LOTR -- enjoyable enough for what they reveal, but not as satisfying as the master's main work.

Overall, Mr. Stover's skill as a writer is evident in CBK and while Caine is still the charismatic rogue that made me love the character in the first books, I guess what I really would have liked was one, fully expanded story with much higher stakes. "

Should We Even Bother Trying to Get Published?

The answer is yes according to this inspirational post from Evil Editor. He says it's well worth putting in the effort at a time when publishers aren't buying anything.

My Day Job

I'm very happy to report that I recently completed a script for the new "Scooby Doo -- Mystery Inc." The half-hour series is being produced by Warner Brothers Animation and will air on Cartoon Network (not sure when, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out).

This gig is extra cool for me because, well come on, it's Scooby! It's also most excellent to be working (aka getting paid) in what happens to be my favorite broadcast medium -- television animation. For me, it doesn't get much better than that.

And it's Scooby!!!

Twitter Me This

A succinct and funny summation of why I probably* won't be joining the Tweet Nation.

(Legal Disclaimer: Use of the qualifier "probably" frees this blogger to begin tweeting at some future date should his blissfully dull life become interesting enough to share with close personal friends, family members, and total strangers. Not valid in Delaware.)

Myth of the Tortured Writer

Here's a great post from sf author John Scalzi about "What You Have to Give Up to Write".

(hint: not much if you apply a little discipline)

Gearing Up for November in July

Just to give you all a heads up...

The National Novel Writing Month challenge starts in a little over 90 days so if you're interested in giving it a try, now might be a good time to start noodling around some ideas of what you want to write.

My method of being ready to rock on Nov. 1st is crude, but effective:

1. Go to the site (linked above) and sign up. It's free and there are no obligations of any sort -- even to participate in November.
   
2. Come up with an idea or two or three. Pick the one that interests/excites you the most.
3. Describe that idea in a sentence or two.
4. Expand those sentences into short paragraphs.
5. Expand those paragraphs into a two or three page synopsis. This is all "what might happen" kind of stuff.
   
6. Start breaking down the synopsis and converting it into an outline organized by chapters. You can be fairly arbitrary at this point. Write "Chapter One" and group all the info in your synopsis that you think might go in your first chapter. You don't have to be rigid, it'll change as you start writing. Do this for "Chapter Two" and so on until the end. My outlines tend to be anywhere from 25 to 40+ chapters and five to ten pages long.
   
7. As Nov. 1st approaches continue to go through your outline as often as you can, adding whatever you can think of in terms of story, setting, and character. Divide chapters that you suspect are too large, add new ones. Jot down character revealing snippets of possible dialogue, etc.
   

If you do this, I can guarantee that you'll be well-placed and eager to start writing when the bell sounds on the big day. Just to be clear, you are not writing your novel yet as that would be against the rules, you're getting ready to write.

Think about it. Yes, it's challenging but it's also very satisfying and well worth any effort you'll put into it.

American Gods - Mini Review

Yet another Neil Gaiman success, the story of "American Gods" centers around a character named Shadow -- an enigmatic everyman who is hired by a shady con artist by the name of Mr. Wednesday.

The underlying premise of the book is that various waves of immigrants (going back to those who came over the land bridge) brought their gods with them to America. These gods, made physical by the worship and adoration of their believers, still exist today -- although largely in a diminished capacity.

Now Mr. Wednesday is rounding up all the gods of the ancient mythologies to do battle with the "new gods" of the American pantheon -- Media, Internet, and Mass Transit to name a few. Apparent there's only so much worship to go around and each group is somehow threatened by the others existence.

Nothing is as it seems in this book which I can safely label as a "fantasy thriller". "American Gods" is a delightfully layered read which remains engaging from cover to cover despite complication after complication after complication...

Recommended.

Surprisingly Not Bad

I'm a little over fifty pages into the rewrite of my second middle grade novel "Magic Man". It took me this long to warm up to the task since by the end of last November, I was about as sick of my manuscript as an author could be. But I forced myself to finish the first draft, made a few feeble attempts to start the rewrite, then chucked the whole thing aside for seven months.

And you know what? It worked! As I'm going through the text of what I knew was an absolute piece of poo, I'm delighted to discover that it's actually pretty good. No really! The story pretty much makes sense, dialogue is fairly crisp, the funny parts are more or less funny, and the action sequences border on being exciting -- all the kinds of things I can fix during the editing part of the program. That's what rewriting is for, after all. Very cool.

I've often read that you should give yourself a bit of time before jumping into a rewrite -- to clear your head and let things settle down -- but who knew the suggestion actually worked?!

The Graveyard Book - Mini Review

With "The Graveyard Book", Neil Gaiman continues to define himself as one of the most original and inventive authors working in the business today. A fan of his work since the graphic series "Sandman", I picked up this book with the certain knowledge that I was in for a storytelling treat. I was not disappointed in the least.

The narrative centers around Nobody Owens, a boy who, as a toddler, was tragically orphaned by the brutal murder of his family. Adopted by the ghosts of a nearby graveyard and protected by a mysterious guardian, "Bod" grows up learning the ways of the dead and with the knowledge that the man who killed his family still hunts for him outside the protection of the graveyard.

Wonderfully illustrated by David McKean, "The Graveyard Book" is a fun and engaging read that easily exceeds all expectations. Highly recommended.