reasons i suck

Brief notes, briefly

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My post analyzing THE NIGHT STRANGLER, the second of the Carl Kolchak tv movies and the lead-in to the series, doesn’t seem to have posted to my LiveJournal friends list. I wonder if it came up as backdated, which prevents it from appearing on the list. It’s on LJ right here. Warning, it’s a long post.

Also, the back cover copy for Game of Cages has appeared on Amazon.com. Here it is:

A SECRET HIGH-STAKES AUCTION

As a wealthy few gather to bid on a predator capable of destroying all life on earth, the sorcerers of the Twenty Palace Society mobilize to stop them. Caught up in the scramble is Ray Lilly, the lowest of the low in the society—an ex–car thief and the expendable assistant of a powerful sorcerer. Ray possesses exactly one spell to his name, along with a strong left hook. But when he arrives in the small town in the North Cascades where the bidding is to take place, the predator has escaped and the society’s most powerful enemies are desperate to recapture it. All Ray has to do is survive until help arrives. But it may already be too late.

I like that.

Also, I have to put up a complete first chapter for GoC soon, along with revamping my website a bit. I haven’t done it yet, because Life keeps getting in the way. Soon, though. Soon.

This is not complicated.

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I’m going to make one of my obligatory posts about spoilers and spoiler warnings. If you’ve been here before, skim on by.

It’s prompted by this quote by Catherynne M. Valente:

It hamstrings the review to not be able to directly discuss any of the actual events that take place in the movie. How can you engage with the text without acknowledging anything within it? It’s infuriating.

Full context here.

Essentially, she puts a spoileriffic review of the movie SPLICE behind a cut because of the “howls” from people complaining about spoilers.

Look, let’s make this clear and simple for people who like to pretend their being harassed or censored somehow: If you’re going to write about a book or movie in a way that includes spoilers, just say so up front[1]. It’s a courtesy for people who haven’t seen the movie yet. Is that so challenging? Eight little letters? No one wants to “hamstring” anyone. No one wants prevent discussion. Just let us know what you’re about to do so we can make an informed decision about it.

Why is that even mildly controversial?

But what really annoys me is this assertion:

Especially because it implies that the only worth of a movie or book is the shock value in a turn of plot, nothing else. If you know the ending of The Sixth Sense going in, it’s somehow a failure as a film.

Ms. Valente has always seemed pretty sharp to me so I’m not sure what to make of this. Is it hyperbole that missed its mark? I don’t even know.

But let’s be clear: Spoiling a movie for someone changes their experience of it. I’m not going to go through the whole thing again about how it affects me to know, for instance, that a particular character is going to die, but it changes the way I experience a movie. It takes away the pleasure of a clever plot twist. In some movies, that matters. A lot.

Using spoiler warnings doesn’t imply that the only worth in a story is in the shock value of a plot, it simply acknowledges that shocking plot twists have value. It doesn’t imply that a spoiled movie is a failure, it accepts that the pleasure of seeing a spoiled movie is reduced.

All of which could have been avoided with a little basic courtesy.

In other news, yeah, there is some stressful shit going on. It doesn’t show, does it?

[1] Yeah, I realize there are people out there who don’t want spoilers on the net in any form, even after there’s been a warning. Fuck those people for being idiots. There has to be a place where people can discuss plots in full detail, and that place is anywhere they please. I’m not asking for an end to spoilers, only for a little labeling.

There’s an awful lot to think about today.

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But I really wish I had either child care or health care that wasn’t tied to my job.

I just put my wife and son on a bus

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They’re headed downtown to connect with the Link light rail and then on to the airport. My mother-in-law had a medical emergency today. I’m not going to give details because it’s not my place, but my wife threw a bunch of stuff into a rolly backpack, grabbed the kid by the ear and lit off for upstate NY. I’m not sure where things stand, but I hope it all turns out all right.

Me, I’ll probably be following on Saturday morning, if the state of emergency is still ongoing. Until then, I’ll be doing what needs doing to leave this place for a full week, namely: paying bills, cleaning, drinking heavily.

It’s a plan.

“Because all you of Earth are idiots!”

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My son and I are watching PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

OMG.

Day jobbing today

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During yesterday’s lunch break I had to hustle all over downtown picking up things I needed (toner cartridge! new bed sheets! large envelopes! tickets to see my friend’s movie at SIFF!) and returned to the office a bit… misty.

All right, I was totally sweaty. Hey, I’m fat. It happens. (It used to happen before I was fat, too, but never mind).

So, self-conscious! Meeting with my boss in which I had to explain an error I made, while completely sweaty! A full afternoon spent fretting over body odor. Great day.

Last night, plans to shower were thwarted by a severe shortage of hot water. We didn’t even have luke warm water, dammit. I took an Irishman’s shower (I’m Irish–I’m allowed to make that joke) and went to bed early.

Which meant I woke up early. Hey, I had time for that shower now!

But hold on a minute. I was up early enough the catch the very first bus of the day. Taking the 5:20 instead of the 6:10 means I get an extra (mumble mumble carry the two) fifty minutes extra minutes of writing time. Do I take advantage of that extra writing time, or should do I make a concession to my co-workers’ delicate sensibility? Book or B.O.?

You know I chose book. No one has complained yet, but what the hell, some of these folks are heavy smokers, with all the stinkiness that implies. Plus, the person who sits closest to me claims they can’t smell me. I’m not worried about it.

I met and exceeded my daily word count goal, though.

As promised, pictures

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Here are the pictures from the premiere of THE DEAD FEED last Thursday night. There are no videos. It didn’t seem appropriate at the time.

So, if any other members of the cast were there aside from Kate (in blue), who played the protagonist’s older sister Beth, I didn’t see them.

Kate Szperski & friend

A few more at the Flickr set.

Every film is created three times

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The first time is when the writer writes the script.

The second time is when the cast and crew shoot the film.

The third time is when the editor assembles the final edit.

Each time the script is recreated, it’s made from a narrow range of materials. The writer has a concept and some characters in mind, plus what they know can be done on film. The cast and crew have the locations and characters in the script. The editor has the footage and sound recording.

And that’s why the movie I wrote, which I saw last night for the first time, was interesting but didn’t really work. I know there were troubles in production–trouble with sound, with actors not showing up for calls, all sorts of things. It occurs to me (much too late to do anything about it) that Terry Rossio’s advice to never write a thriller screenplay in which everything is super-tight and the plot is built scene by scene. If your script is so taut that it comes apart if some scene is changed or dropped, then it’s going to come apart in production because stuff gets changed all the time.

So, the movie isn’t successful. It’s interesting, and I think it would be interesting to people who weren’t involved in the production. Not what-an-interesting-story interesting, but this-weird-shit-is-affecting interesting, if you know what I mean. Because you can’t really follow the story: big chunks had to be dropped, including an establishing scene for a very important character. In this edit, the protagonist’s sister doesn’t turn up until the third act, and you have no idea who she is or why the protagonist is searching her house.

And there are more issues. It’s flawed but interesting and affecting.

When the film gets distribution (even if it’s only on Netflix) I’ll post the script online. Folks might be interested in seeing the changes between the script version and the final film.

And I’m really glad I’m a novelist now. It makes things so much simpler.

And I’m off!

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The family just arrived. I’m about to catch a cross-town bus to have dinner and then go to see “my” movie. Usually, I go to see “a” movie. Not tonight.

::gulp!::

I haven’t been online much for the past few days

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Busy with crap I can’t/won’t talk about. I’m about 3,000 words into The Buried King and I feel like I’m spinning my wheels–and I’ll be damned if just typing that didn’t give me the idea I needed to revamp the opening of the book.

That means I’ll be restarting this thing for the fourth time, but what the hell. Whatever it takes, right?

It doesn’t help that my brain has been consumed by all sorts of personal shit. How do we change our lives for the better? What’s the next step? Do we move? To another city? Dump a bunch of our crap? Buy a car so we have more mobility?

I don’t know. There’s a lot of uncertainty in front of us. Hell, we’re taking a trip in September, but we can’t even decide where to go. What makes things worse is that I can’t even work out the plot of my WIP on long walks; my thought are consumed with problems big and small, especially the petty annoyances.

More later.