Speaking of tower defense games, here’s trailer for a new game, Plants Vs. Zombies:
Or you can check out the more traditional trailer here. And if that’s not odd or cute enough for you, this has to be the cutest zombie moment ever
You’re welcome.
Today (5 things make a Monday)
Standard- For dinner tonight, I made roast chicken (note: I hate my oven) and a from-scratch baguette that had tapenade rolled in it. Olive bread? Big hit with the fam. I’ll be doing that again.
- Just watched the latest CASTLE. Yeah, it’s a good show. And I would like 26 bestsellers, too, please.
- Just when I thought the swine flu thing was winding down, I find out it’s actually getting much worse.
- And I realize I’m a little late (hah!), but there are a couple of free comics online you can check out. One. Two. That second one was written by Chris Sims, of Invincible Super Blog fame–it’s pretty ridiculous funny. What’s that you say? The internet is full of free comics? Never mind.
- If you Google funny robot, no quotes, you get this animation, which at least has a robot in it, although I’m not sure where the funny comes in. Look for more Google top hits in this blog in the future, since actual, thoughtful content turns out to be pretty hard to come up with.
Yesterday
StandardHere’s a quick tally of yesterday’s strangeness (not all of it bad):
Woke early. Worked on …Blue Dog for a while, then rushed home.
Went out just after lunch to see BATTLE FOR TERRA. My son nearly fell asleep on the bus.
We all stopped in at a comics shop for Free Comics Day. The first comics we saw were very, very adult. We had to make our way to the back to pick up books the boy wanted.
At the movie theater, I had to take the elevator. This particular shopping center (Pacific Place) is four stories with a wide open mezzanine structure. The escalators trigger my fear of heights, and for some reason I was extremely vulnerable yesterday.
Loved the movie. See previous post.
At the boy’s insistence, we sat down to eat at Johnnie Rockets, which was even worse than I remembered. The meal was interrupted partway through by an PA announcement that they were evacuating the building.. I stayed behind to settle the bill, then met my wife and son outside. So much for visiting the bookstore in the basement.
On the bus ride home, I noticed something strange just before we came to our stop. A woman was standing by the door to her townhouse, pushing a man away. She would then turn to unlock her door, and he came up close to her again. She appeared to be fending him off.
My wife said “That didn’t look good.” We all got off the bus and I immediately went over there, but they had both gone inside. When I turned around, I saw that my wife had flagged down a police car. We explained what we saw, and he promised to look into it.
Was she about to be raped? Why was the building evacuated? I don’t think we’re ever going to find out.
BATTLE FOR TERRA (no spoilers)
StandardWe just returned from BATTLE FOR TERRA, and it was fantastic! Great characters, thrilling action scenes and a powerful ending. My wife cried (which is not a spoiler–she cries at happy endings and sad ones, as long as it’s emotionally powerful). She also walked out of the theater with the urge to travel.
The boy loved it, too. We saw it 3-D for him (‘natch) and he kept saying “Whoa!” and “Awesome!” all through it. There were a couple scenes that I thought might be too intense for him, but no. He was all over that stuff.
And it’s gorgeous. This is the most beautiful science fiction movie I’ve seen in a long time.
For me, one of the most interesting things about the story was how the violence came from fear. This is something I’ve been working through in my own work, and it was wonderful to see his take on it.
Go see it. It’s wonderful.
Also, thanks to everyone who’s voted in my poll. I’m grateful for all your ideas and the poll is still open.
I was planning to post about the 2008 bestseller list
StandardBut hey, something else came up. What was it, you ask?
Why, it’s the advanced reader’s editions of my book!
Holy crap! I am holding my first book in my hand and I am walking on air. When I took them out of the envelope, I was stunned to see that they had covers on them. I don’t know why I assumed they’d have plain covers like those stacks of books I saw that time at The Strand, but I just stared and stared at it.
And I thought Christ! It’s huge!
I seriously thought it was the biggest mass market paperback I’d ever seen, and I had to compare it to the books on my shelf to convince myself it was the normal size.
Oh, hey! Wanna see the whole cover?
It’s a little hard to read that text, but if you want to read the back cover text, check out this larger version of the file. It’s three copies of the book photocopied together, but I’m not tearing one apart for my blog. At that link you can see the blurbs from Jim Butcher, Terry Rossio and Sherwood Smith, and the back cover copy, too.
And now I’m going to bed. I have a scene to revise tomorrow, and suddenly it doesn’t feel daunting at all.
:-)
More lol-ing at trainwrecks.
StandardI’m going to keep this one short so you can get right to the WTF?/gape-mouthed expressions of astonishment/guffaws.
Literary agent Janet Reid: What not to say when you’re pitching an agent. Number three is the one that really dinged my bell.
Yay!
StandardI’m going to San Diego Comic-Con as a professional. (!) That means I can go to all four days, if I want.
You know, I’ve never been to a convention before. From what I understand, this one is at the far end of the bell curve.
Have I mentioned how much I dislike jumping into the deep end? Not that I’m nervous, or anything.
Quick links and notes
StandardFirst: I’ve mentioned before that I cut my writing teeth on Wordplay, a screenwriter’s site, and I maintain a friendship with many of the people I met there. Well, another Wordplay alumnus, Keith Calder, has a movie coming out this weekend: Battle For Terra. His previous film was The Whackness, and if that doesn’t say “this producer has a wide range of skills and interests” what would? It opens this Friday, and I’m planning to take the whole family.
Next: this is what the term “office hijinks” was created for.
Next: I passed the halfway point of the revision of Everyone Loves Blue Dog, and I’m about to start a scene that will need heavy changes (for the better, I suspect). As soon as I finish this post and a little more kitchen work, I’ll be back at it.
Next: Tonight we have a taste test of the three pizza crust recipes posted in my LJ last week. The family decides tonight!
Next: Andrew Wheeler posts the genre bestsellers of 2008. Hmm. If each hardback sale earns about two bucks for the author…
Next: The deadline to opt out of the Google/Author’s Guild settlement is May 5th. Find out more about it.
Next: I’m on Dreamwidth as burger_eater. Currently, I have no idea what I’m going to use the account for, but once a WordPress cross-poster comes into the world, I may start copying everything over there, too.
Finally, on Saturday we took a couple buses across town to check out the final weekend of Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. It was beautiful, and I loved the idea of paintings where the same characters appear several times in different places, each different image coming together to tell a story. Amazing stuff.
You’re the expert
StandardTyping this quickly, because it’s sunny and I want to go for a walk on my break.
This morning’s work session was terrible. I read a particular sequence in Everyone Loves Blue Dog over and over, trying to find ways to trim or improve it.
But you know what? I think it works pretty damn well just as it is. I’ve decided to take the stance that I am the expert on my own story. It works, and I’m not going to break it.
Hell, I even have the T-shirt, which isn’t available any more (but other items are). I think I’ll take that T-shirt out of my bottom drawer for my trip to San Diego Comic-Con.
Have I ever mentioned that I started off in screenplays? Most of my learning-to-make-story training happened on screenplay forums (ask me why if you’re curious) and I spent years on it. That’s why my IPSTPW Day offering was a horror script. I learned a helluva lot on the Wordplay site, back in the day.
Tomorrow, I’ll be up extra early and start on the next section of book. I’m already giving Important Supporting Character additional juice in her scenes, and I have a couple of other changes in mind.
Now, I’m off to the sunshine!
Exciting!
StandardSome friends of mine are planning to make a low-budget sf film. I have the script at home waiting to be read, and I know–know–it’s going to rock. No cheapo aliens, Ed Wood monsters, or SiFi Originals-level acting for these guys. They’re smart and clever.
The title is NEWTON’S CRADLE, and I can’t wait to read it.
So! For my own contribution to the glittering screen, I offer a failure-proof of my idea for use in any Hollywood mega-production. For free!
Because you know it’s good if it doesn’t cost you anything.
The movie will be called JIG, and it’ll be about a woman who collects rare jigsaw puzzles–you know, for the art–who discovers a WWII era German jigsaw artist who hid clues in his many puzzles that will lead a clever puzzler to the location of Secret Nazi Gold. It’ll be just like a Dan Brown novel, but with pretty pictures of leaping dolphins and homey villages populated with anthropomoriphized kittens.
Our Heroine teams up with the smoking hot great grandson of the jigsaw artist–a detective with a love of Nazi puzzles–in a race against [mumble mumble] to find the secret treasure. But was the jigsaw puzzle artist really a secret Nazi and a killer? And is his great grandson one too????
See? It writes itself. And after people left the theater, they could tell all their friends they “Saw Jig.” Heh heh. Get it?
Call me, Hollywood!