Musings

So, another Republican politician has been caught in a sex scandal. Is every Republican a self-loathing, closeted gay? Guess not because there’s the LA Republican who frequented the escort service.

The truth is I don’t care who people sleep with, how many people they sleep with and what gender they might be. It’s the blatant hypocrisy that makes me crazy. Tucker Carlson was fulminating about how people were so mean to the LA hooker guy, and how it’s a personal and private matter and the press ought to ease up. HELLO! it’s because they’re all holding themselves out as so much more moral than Democrats, and legislating in our bedrooms, and telling us all how to live. Yes, sex and relationships are private matters so tell that to the Republicans, and let’s tell our representatives to concentrate on things that actually matter, like universal health care, and fixing the country’s infrastructure, and improving education, and getting that Moon base, damn it! Oh, and I want my flying car too!

Melinda

This year’s Bubonicon was a terrific success. We are becoming an impressive regional convention that nobody has heard about. We had such a fantastic line up of writers. In addition to the usual suspects — George, Daniel, Walter, Ian, S.M. Stirling, Steve Donaldson, Jane Lindskold, Pati Nagel, Suzy Charnas, John Miller we had Carrie Vaughn and Connie Willis who came down from Colorado. There was a new writer, Warren Hammond, Sam Butler in from New York. Our GoH Verner Vinge. Okay, I can’t list everyone. If we could add an editor or two stopping by we would match Armadillo Con in its heyday.

The nice thing about our fans is that they are book people. The readings and panels are always very well attended. We get to talk a lot about the craft of writing which is something that really interests me. This year was also marked with rememberances of the two men who weren’t with us this time — Jack Williamson and Fred Saberhagen. Connie and I chaired a memorial service that ended up being more about joyful and funny memories than bibliographies and that was just perfect.

We made our annual pilgramage to the Pope Room at Buco de Beppo, and shared some laughs and made some memories. Carrie Vaughn had us all in stitches with her stick figure comic about how she became a Wild Card writer. I’m hoping she will post it on her website. Ian and I even managed to write an act of OUTPOST during the con so it wasn’t all play. It was strange not to continue the party at World Con, but we’ll all look forward to seeing each other at World Fantasy.

So, if you’re looking for a terrific convention in August please keep us in mind.

Melinda

It’s been an intensely busy couple of weeks. My friends Stephen and Janice were in from Australia, and this week my friend Sam Butler (look for Sam’s book REIFFEN’S CHOICE and then buy it) came out from New York to visit and attend our local science fiction convention Bubonicon. Yes, you read that right. Not a typo. We really do have a con named after the Bubonic plague. Because New Mexico is the Land of the Flea, Home of the Plague. And Hanta Virus. If we come down with a respitory illness any place else in the world we’re supposed to impress upon the attending physician that we are from New Mexico and to check us for Hanta. But I digress.

Sam sat in on a meeting of Critical Mass and was impressed with the quality of critique being offered but said the group would never work for him because his writing style is to just write down everything about the characters, a situation etc., and in essence “find the story.” George indicated to me that he writes the same way, feeling his way into and through a story, allowing the hind brain to guide him.

Then there is Daniel, Ian and me. We intensely plot a book before we ever write the opening line. We may break out beats of a scene in a chapter. I did that when I choreographed the big fight sequence at the end of ON THE EDGE. For me it’s like picking up and setting in place a scene brick that will ultimately build the entire structure. This doesn’t mean that I don’t throw out scenes or add scenes or alter the sequence of chapters or scenes, but I can’t write if I don’t have everything pretty well laid out.

I would think that the advantage to the “find it” technique is that it remains very fresh, almost surprising because you are discovering what happens next along with your characters. On the down side you would have to be prepared to have written a lot of pages that ultimately don’t fit in the book or advance the story.

My technique might keep me from exploring some really cool side path that might ultimately dovetail back into the main story, and would make the book stronger. The advantage is that I don’t end up with wasted pages.

All of this set me to wondering if people with differing styles can collaborate or if you’re better off with a writer who shares your sensibilities. Ian and I work very well together. I somehow think I couldn’t write with Sam or George. I think we’d drive each other crazy.

Melinda

Hollywood has changed in some ways since I last worked out there, and in other depressing ways it hasn’t changed. It still puts a premium on youth and gender (the preferred one being male), but in terms of getting an idea in front of people with the power to buy it’s become a much tighter funnel through which you have to pass. My manager and I came up with a really cool idea, but to try and get to a network we’ve been trying to attract a big name show runner or director to come on board. That hasn’t happened because it’s hard to give the full flavor of an idea when you’ve only got a page or at most two, and the manager is trying to pitch it over the phone to a company. He’s walking a tightrope because if you say too much that gives them more chances to find something they don’t like and shut you down. And if you don’t say enough they go — “Oh, I’ve heard that idea before” and shoot you down when everyone knows “it’s the execution, stupid”.

Which leaves you with the other route through the maze. You write the spec pilot to show them why this is a cool idea, and how you can execute the hell out of it. Which is what I’m in the process of doing now.

After Michael and I cooked up the high concept pitch of the idea I went away and fleshed out the characters and the kind of stories we would tell. I knew there was a big secret so I wanted to have it all worked out and as I mentioned before I brought in writer/physicist Dr. Ian Tregillis to assist me. (I hit all the honorifics for a reason, and not to make Ian blush). As Michael failed to attract a Big Name I began to see that we needed to write this sucker so I asked Ian to form a writing team with me. Aside from the fact he had put a lot of energy into coming up with the secret behind the show, and he’s a hell of a writer there are many other advantages for us as a team. I have the experience and talent which is good, but Hollywood loves the Hot New Thing, and I have a track record which makes me less interesting. Ian is the Prince from a Foreign Land, he’s male, he’s young and he’s very talented. Voila, a Hollywood team is born!

We’ve gotten the Teaser and Act One written and we’re just into Act Two. We quit last night as exhaustion overcame us, but I was also bugged because I had seen this scene before. A lot of times before. That’s one of the questions I always keep floating in the front of my mind as I write. “Have I seen this before? And if I have how can I present this information in a more interesting and fresher manner?” While driving down the Hill from Los Alamos I saw the way to start Act Two so I’m going to write so of it this afternoon, and resume with Ian this evening.

I’ll keep you posted.

Melinda

Last night Janice and I decided to give the Werewolf movie a big miss so we drank coffee, visited with Walter until he headed off to the opera, and then we settled down for a discussion of THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. Janice was very disappointed in the book, and I admit that this is the first time with Rowling that the more I think about the book the less I like it.

I’ve been very careful not to dispense any spoilers, but I think I can safely rant about how she didn’t do right by Snape. I wanted Harry to have to deal with the fact this man he has hated was in fact his greatest protector, far less manipulative than Dumbledore, and in fact loved Harry. I also wanted Snape’s death to mean something. It just seemed like an afterthought.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Lord of the Rings, and how at the end the Shire is saved, but Frodo can never be at peace in the place he loved and saved. We needed that for Harry. I never thought she would kill the character, but here is the end I had envisioned. I thought that in order to defeat Voldemort Harry was going to have to give up his magical powers and become a muggle. Then we have a sacrifice that doesn’t smack of Christian ressurection, and ends up feeling like a cheat. Harry would then be dealing with the truth about Snape and Dumbledore (I really like how she showed that Dumbledore was not this living saint), and the fact that he must give up all that he loves in order to save it, and I would have found that bitter/sweet and far more satisfying than the epilogue she gave me.

Melinda

Time for another movie review. Tuesday night, George, Parris, Janice Gelb and Stephen Boucher (our friends from Australia), Carl and I headed off to see Stardust. I ended up liking this movie a lot, and, in fact, I’d like to see it again. Which is the hightest compliment I can pay a movie. I very, very rarely want to go again.

Initially I was pretty worried. First, it had a voice over, which is often a bad sign. It also got started very slowly. It wasn’t that I would have cut out any of the opening scenes, but they just went on for a very long time. Yes, I get it, he’s in love with a mean girl, he has big dreams, so let’s get on with it. I also thought the beginning was rather muddled with witches and brothers fighting for a throne, and lovesick young men, and a sassy star. Then halfway through the movie — about the time Rober di Niro came mincing onto the screen it started to win me over.

And by the end I was charmed and joined in the applause because they brought all the threads to a very satisfying braided conclusion. There were no surprises in this movie, but they did it very well and I ended up liking the characters — even the villains.

One thing that did bug me right to the end was the mixing of language styles. At times the film was very Victorian, and then suddenly our hero would be delivering a line like “Oh, get over yourself.” That kind of anachronism was jarring and would jerk me right out of the movie and the moment. Overall I would say Stardust is a lovely couple of hours.

Melinda

George came over for an RPG at my house on Saturday and he brought an extra copy of my bound manuscript. Which looked just like bound galleys. The problem is that the manuscript hasn’t been copy edited hence the “bound manuscript” title rather than bound galleys. The front page says the books is going to be published May 2008. This is later than I’d hoped, but at last I have a date — a real date… I hope.

So after getting excited I then became immediately nauseated because of course the book sucks, and whatever was I thinking writing such a dumb idea. Ah, the joys of being a writer.

Patrick, my editor, called me today and we discussed a few more people to solicit for cover quotes. He also said he was pushing the art department about the cover. He says it should be soon so watch this spot. As soon as the cover is available I’ll have it posted.

And then the next terror hit. This is a very, very controversial book. It’s going to offend the crazy religious crowd of every stripe and denomination. I’m actually a little bit worried that I’m going to be killed. I expect to be threatened, and I plan not to read the howls of outrage. (I never read any of the angry posts from Star Trek fans after my essay in Omni appeared), but it’s daunting to expect to be hated. Because of course everyone wants to be loved.

But I really felt this book, and the themes spoke to me so deeply that I had to write it. We’ll see what happens.

Melinda

After spending the day in Albuquerque having lunch with Daniel Abraham and Walter Jon and Sage I ended up dodging the kitchen brigade. Carl and I went into Santa Fe for the best burgers I’ve ever eaten at The Sleeping Dog Tavern. After dinner we caught a showing of the Bourne Ultimatum. I liked it better then I had liked the first two films. I think it was because Matt Damon has aged and I can now believe he’s an awesome killing machine. I quite enjoyed the story, since I’m far more afraid of my government’s undermining of the Constitution and my civil liberites than I am afraid of terrorists. But the camera work literally gave me a headache and had me nauseous by the end of the movie. I came home and ate Tums and sat up until my stomach stopped churning.

My frien Ty pointed out how great the fight sequences were in The Matrix movies, and that is so true. Next time I want to watch some great butt kicking I’ll pop back in DRUNKEN MASTER.

Melinda

Yesterday morning over breakfast I mentioned to Carl that Mike Cassutt and I are making terrific progress on our spec feature SHOOT THE MOON, but I added that we need to cut it down so we hit the big end of act two moment at around page 60. He asked how long the script would be and I said we were aiming for around 110 pages. He then asked why we were going so short given the fact that many movies are running two and a half hours now. (And when it’s Spiderman 3 or Transformers it can seem like nine years.)

Anyway, that made me start to think about the choice between going to 120 or 123 pages and putting in every bit of Cool Shit you can think of, and keeping it taut and punchy. I ultimately decided that I would go for shorter and tighter and here’s my reasoning. It will give a studio suit something to mess with. In the immortal words of George R.R. Martin “they all want to piss in the soup to make it taste better”. If we haven’t played every possible beat then the exec can say, “I’d like to see a scene where _this_ happens and the writer can say, “What a good idea. I’ll add it right away.”

Of course this may not work at all because you might end up with the guy who thinks you are too stupid to have seen the possible Cool Shit scenes and rejects you and the script. But hey, as writers what we do is gambling, and Hollywood is the biggest crap shoot of them all.

After a frenzied day of meeting with a solar company for the panels to run the drip irrigation, and buying concrete pavers to support the outdoor decks that are going to be built over the next few days, and other various errands, Carl and I met Parris for a matinee of HAIRSPRAY. The film has been getting great reviews, and it was totally charming. The singing was great — the little gal playing Tracy and the kid playing Seaweed had amazing pipes. The dancing and choreography was as good if not better than the singing. Since I studied voice for years and danced very seriously — both jazz and classical ballet — I was really in heaven.

John Travolta surprised me as Edna, and I’ll see a movie if Christopher Walken is in it. (But I won’t see the ping pong movie. I have to draw the line _somewhere_) The funny thing with Travolta is when he assumed the little “I’m so touched face” he looked _just_ like Miss Piggy. I passed this on to Carl and Parris and had them howling. I recommend this film. It will bring a smile to your face, and for the Boomers it will evoke another time when activism was in the air. I wish it would come back.

Next up the Bourne movie. And I’ve got a back log of Netflix — Blood Diamond and Deja Vu.

Now it’s time to start reading for Critical Mass. We’re going to have a very heavy load for the August session.

Melinda