TV

Randomness for 5/12

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1) Sci-fi IKEA manuals.

2) The first five Harry Potter novels abbreviated in comic form.

3) Since when did diligence become a psychiatric disorder?

4) Japanese TV show pranks a man with a haunted mirror. Video. I’m a bad person for laughing as hard as I did, especially after things got crazy. Be sure to watch the whole thing.

5) TV writer Doris Egan on The Moment They Figure It Out: open and closed plot structures, realization, and turning points, with a little Doctor Who thrown in for good measure.

6) “I will tell you a secret to make you stand out.”

7) “Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says” Oh god, for once, read the comments on this “article.” Let’s be CLEAR this is not a VADER victory but a victory of our boys in white, not to mention the leadership of Lord Tyrannus the Count Dooku who started the manhunt in the first place. LOL via Jay Lake

N Things Make a Post

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n-6 ) I want to say thanks to everyone who answers my hypothetical posts. I don’t always respond to every comment mainly because I don’t want to do a bunch of “Cool!” or “That’s a great idea!” replies, but that’s pretty much what I’m thinking. However, my filmmaker friend Steve Barr left this comment, which probably deserves its own story seed spot.

n-5 ) “Then you are prejudiced, Timmy, because Steve is your filmmaker friend, and not your friend.” (I suspect that the only people who’ll get that reference are readers Of A Certain Age.

n-4) According to Twitter, ARCs of Circle of Enemies have been spotted in the wild. Yay! (gulp!)

n-3 ) Norwescon starts today but I’m not going. I have some stuff to do, and I have other plans for tonight. Here’s my schedule for the rest of the day: 1. Finish this post. 2. Email agent to let her know Twenty Palaces is on the way. 3. Walk to the post office on this chilly, sunny day to mail said book. 4. Go to library to drop off books and write a few pages of A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark. 5. Return home to have dinner (burger salad tonight!) 6. Kick back with a book and read for most of the evening. God, I’m so looking forward to reading again.

n-2 ) This deserves its own post, but R.I.P. Elisabeth Sladen. She was the costar of the first Dr. Who I ever saw, and every costar since has had to measure themselves against her. She was wonderful in the role, and I hope that she had good, happy, satisfying life. Too soon.

n-1 ) I’ve talked before about the Bookscan numbers Amazon.com shares with authors, and the fact that the numbers for my books were improving after I guest-posted at Charles Stross’s blog. Well, last week the numbers had nearly returned to the levels they were during my stint at antipope.org, and I wondered over it. This week, the numbers have jumped even higher. Like, much higher, about triple what they were before my guest blog. At this point, I don’t much care why. I just want it to keep going on.

n) I haven’t seen GAME OF THRONES and I’m not planning to. The problem with having a kid who’s a night owl is that I can’t spend late evenings watching grownup shows with the volume down while he sleeps. Instead, I spend them sitting beside him, gently suggesting he shut his damn eyes and lie back down. I’m seriously excited for the next book, though.

Hey, is HBO premiering a new show tonight?

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I think I might have heard something about it.

Randomness for 3/21

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1) Simpsons jokes, by season. via Bill Martell.

2) A James Bond script, written by Ben “The Shakespeare of Hollywood” Hecht. I especially love the idea of giving the name “James Bond” to different agents, just to mix things up. It explains the parade of actors in the role so nicely.

3) Seven massive holes in the Earth.

4) Read this wonderful story by Jane Rice, written in the 1940s.

5) Novels and novelists: imperfect competition

6) An interesting new format for physical books. (Ignore the seo crap about killing the Kindle).

7) Not a real ad campaign for the Smithsonian.

Quick question

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What channel is the Puppy Oscars on? I can’t seem to find it.

Randomness for

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1) Now this is a brilliant film trailer: Baby trashes bar. Video.

2) Wildly successful self-published author Amanda Hocking on What It Takes.

3) An appreciation for a show I’ve been watching: The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

4) Samurai fights his own shadow. Video. This is really beautiful and well done.

5) The 50 worst band photos ever. I haven’t looked at all of these yet, but yikes.

6) Facebook ads in a superhero universe. The last one is priceless. I’m tempted to do this for urban fantasy universes.

7) I love this: What happened to the bullies at the end of THE NEVERENDING STORY? Video. Via Matt Staggs at Suvudu.

Randomness for 2/19

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1) Become a Jedi in 10 easy steps.

2) The Magic of a Good Manuscript Title.

3) The Great Gatsby, as an NES video game.

4) Stonehenge directions via IKEA.

5) Some of you guys like Firefly, right?

6) “Bread Goes In, Toast Comes Out” The Bill O’Reilly meme.

7) This is an important one: Is your favorite Borders closing? Check this list for a nearby indie alternative. via Genreville.

Randomness for 2/7

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1) The Facebook comment decision flowchart.

2) Passive-aggressive notes to your readers are probably not a good idea.

3) Cthonians!

4) Want to read the series bible for the modern BSG?

5) The web sit alignment chart.

6) Backyard fight gets out of hand. Video. Dude should have left his light saber at home.

7) Photos of criminals in Sydney during the 1920s. Amazing photos. Just amazing. Taken from this book.

The TV remake game

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I’m copying this game from lwe’s newsgroup.

Let us suppose a network decided that you, yes YOU, are a marketing
genius, and they hired you, at extravagant rates, to create three
series for them.

The first is to be a continuation of an existing series that was
cancelled too soon — tell them which series should have been kept
alive, and what direction it would take to prevent a second
cancellation.

The second is to be a remake/re-imagining of a canceled series, and
you have all of TV’s history to play with, from the 1940s to last
week.

And finally, give them a spin-off — doesn’t matter whether the
original series is still thriving or long dead.

Here are mine.

Revival: “Thundarr the Barbarian” (I’d change it to have one or two long-term enemies for him to face over a season)

Remake: “CBS Mystery Movies” (Lifetime tried to revive this idea–a weekly two-hour tv movie mystery with a rotating cast of regulars–but they weren’t fun and didn’t have the budget.

Spin-off: “Mace!” Pre-trade rebellion exploits of Jedi Knight Mace Windu as he patrols the mean streets of Coruscant, the city planet.

It was pretty damn tempting to call for The Dresden Files to be revived or remade, but in the end I went with these instead. And yeah, that’s two cartoons. I used to watch a lot of cartoons.

What about you?

Randomness for 1/26

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1) Which TV jobs go to which character?

2) The Comics Code Authority is dead.

3) I feel safer knowing this woman is in prison. Great work, authoritarian assholes!

4) The United States of Shame. Although I have no idea why Iowa, Ohio, or Utah should be ashamed of those things. (Go WA state!)

5) Dine like a Basil Fawlty customer (for some reason).

6) “If there’s a camel up a hill then it’s Gong Li with me…” Video. I laughed so hard at this that I actually cried, I kid you not.

7) A more serious video on redesigning medical information. Hell yes.