Monthly Archives: March 2015

Not doing too badly

The last few weeks I have been waiting for word that could signal a major change in my writing trajectory. This has produced days of endless nervous tension and lots and lots of email checking.

While I have been waiting, and a little too nervous to write properly, I have had actually not too bad of a time. I have read two books. (The Martian by Andrew Weir a damn fine novel and Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers a favorite author of mine.)

Last weekend was Condor 2015 a local SF convention. It’s on the small size but I had a terribly good time. So busy that I never too the time for a lunch on any day of the con. I was busy from the time I arrived to the time I left for home. (Because it is very local, just a few miles away we did not stay at the hotel.) I participated in three panels (Vampires and Zombies: Why do we keep writing about them, Emerging Epidemics, and What to do when you feel like quitting. All with great fellow panelists and lots of good interactions)

Tuesday a friend came into town for her book launch. My sweetie-wife and I took a half day off from our jobs and spent the afternoon having a lovely lunch, long discussion, and tasty coffee and tea.

I’m still a ball of nerves waiting for word from professionals back east, but I have to say I have also been quite happy the last few days.

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Sunday Night Movie: Predestination

predestination_ver2The reason I became a reader of science-fiction and eventually a writer of that genre is due to the work of Robert A. Heinlein. A grand master of the form his works influenced the arts and sciences for decades. Despite being a best-selling and ground breaker author very few of his works have been adapted successfully into films. The Puppet Masters became a mediocre film fatally damaged by a third act that abandoned the source material for cheaply ripping off other films. Starship Troopers practically ignored the source material and where it didn’t it engaged in a malicious misreading in favor of the director’s favorite obsessions. Given this background I approached Predestination with a healthy sense of apprehension.

Adapted for the screen and directed by the Spierig brothers a pair of Australian filmmakers Predestination overcomes Heinlein’s troubled history with adaptions to become not only the first film to faithful to the source material but a movie that also works well in its own right.

It’s difficult to discuss the plot of Predestination without an abundance of spoilers. This is a time travel film and one needs to go into the viewing with an open mind towards the crazy world of time paradoxes.

Ethan Hawke, returning to work with the Spierig brother again following their partnerships with the novel vampire film Daybreakers, is an agent with basically a time police agency. Hawke’s character is leaping through time in pursuit to another time traveller who is leaving a trail of nasty explosions in his wake. This entire cop and bomber plot is the invention of the filmmakers, yet they fold it into the narrative from the short story in a seamless and tonal consistent manner.

Sarah Snook plays in effect several parts, principally she plays a man who writes confession stories and drinks away his life nursing a grudge over the person who ruined her life. Hawke and Snook’s writer character form an unusual partnership with staggering implications.

The original story ‘All you Zombies…” was written many decades ago and of course its portrayal of the future has become horribly dated. Following in the footsteps of Zack Snyder and his adaptation of the graphic novel ‘Watchmen’ the Spierig brothers do not attempt to ‘update’ the setting or characters, but rather the entire story takes place in an alternate time-line where history, particularly space-travel, followed a different course. This works very well for me, but I’m not sure how many casual audience members would follow this construction.

A low budget film, Predestination, never got a full theatrical release; this is a shame. I think the brothers have shone again that they are able to realize amazing visions with limited resources. Especially in dealing with a film that jumps over 40 years of period, from 1945 through 1985, they pull it all off with style and realism. This is a film that is going to become part of my collection. I urge you all to view it at least one.

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Exclusion Is Not The Answer

Recently author K.T. Bradford issued the challenge for people to for one year to not read anything written by a straight, heterosexual, while, cis-male author. The goal of the challenge, as I understand it, to expand the readers awareness and understanding of the world and its people by exposure to culture, thoughts, and individual from outside the main stream. Make no doubt I agree that the firehouse of material from mainstream media, print, TV, and film, is very much one in which the white, straight, cis-male voice is overwhelmingly dominate. I think it is a terribly good idea for everyone to read and write outside their comfort zone. All readers should seek out material that comes from author who are not like themselves. When you read only from people like yourself you do yourself and others a grave disservice. It is only by such exposure that we can learn what it means to be different and only when we learn that can we begin to have true empathy. That said, I think this exclusion of voice is a terrible concept. No one should be excluded because of the circumstances of their birth. The exclusion of any whole class of people, particularly based upon inherent traits, is an ugly action. Now supporters of challenge may feel that the firehouse of media is so overwhelming dominated by the straight, white, cis-males that the exclusion does no real harm and is justified in the name of social justice. To me such an argument only works if you take the mental step of not remembering that each and every one of those authors, straight, white, and cis-male, are all individual persons. They are not a class, They are not a category. They are people. They are individuals that, by participating in this challenge, your are slighting, excluding, and devaluing their voices. For well-established authors, choosing to not buy their books as part of this challenge is a very minor affair in terms of damage. A man like John Scalzi, an ally in this sort of action, has a well established and devoted fan base. His career is made. However a new voice, a new author needs every single sale he can get. He has to proved that the investment in his art by the publishers is well worth it. It is much more damaging to a first time novelist to have people excluding his work from purchase based solely upon his inherent characteristics that it is the well known and successful. I would urge you to expanding your reading. Expand your understanding. Expand your empathy, but do it by inclusion not exclusion.

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