Like George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss is struggling to finish his book and struggling to deal with the impatience of his fans.
There’s been quite a few blog posts around the internet on this subject, but Rothfuss’s includes cartoons. Funny ones.
Sites for Readers
StandardIs anyone reading this active on one of these sites?
LibraryThing
GoodReads
Shelfari
LivingSocial
RedRoom
WeRead
I find that Child of Fire is already on Shelfari and I am already on LibraryThing under my short story name.
But are any of you folks active on these sites? If so, what do you like about it?
I’m allergic to the idea of joining a social networking site solely to promote my book (although I received this list of sites from a how-to-promote document from my publisher)–in fact, I’m tempted to drop my book cover as my default user icon on LiveJournal because I’m thinking it’s a little tacky. But I’m not averse to joining an interesting site.
What do you think?
Larry Whilmore
StandardLarry Whilmore was on my local NPR station this morning to promote his new book. He talked about writing comedy, writing craft, being a correspondent on THE DAILY SHOW, and spending a year in an office he wasn’t allowed to be in while rewriting the first three pages of the pilot for THE BERNIE MAC SHOW, a script that later one an Emmy.
It’s interesting stuff about craft, and it’s funny, too. It’s almost an hour long, but you can get a podcast of it (I think). Give it a listen.
This I vow
StandardFrom this point forward, I will treat a drippy kitchen faucet the way I treat a malfunctioning computer keyboard: I will detach it, throw it out and buy a replacement.
This shit is not worth the headache or the mess.
DOLLHOUSE, part 2
StandardMore mostly spoiler-free thoughts.
Apparently, Whedon has been telling people the show “gets good” after the first five or six eps. Sorry, but I don’t think Fox is going to stick around that long, and only the Whedon die-hards will still be watching. They can try to convince their internet buddies to give it another chance, but… no.
Here’s why I think the show is in trouble, talking solely about the concept and the tone:
If the show is about corporate creeps who erase people’s memories and then whore them out to billionaires, then the creeps are evil and the whoring is repulsive. The pleasure of the show comes from seeing Echo resist and strike back. If the show is more action-adventure, as the network has reportedly insisted, then the audience is supposed to be thrilled by the dangers she’s been whored into.
That doesn’t work. It breaks the tone with a nasty undercurrent of ick.
And not only does the lead character not actually have any, she also doesn’t have any agency.
Compare it to a show that I think works, mostly: BURN NOTICE. The hero of that show is a spy who’s been “burned” — fired from his agency, all his assets frozen, no explanation needed or given. He’s stranded in Miami taking on PI and anti-con artist jobs for rent money while trying to find out who burned him and why. In the second season, he’s put a face to the people who destroyed his career, but he is still trying to work out who they are.
The major difference there? Michael in BURN NOTICE has agency. He makes his own decisions, plans, takes action, fights, whatever. Echo in DOLLHOUSE can’t. She can only be what her creepy pimps make her.
The only way to make this show work is to do what they hinted at once or twice–she needs to break her programming, and fast. Maybe that’s what Whedon is hinting at when he talks about the sixth episode.
One of this summer’s big releases is going to be the 3D animated science fiction film BATTLE FOR TERRA. Check out the trailer here.
I know one of the producers from our days on Wordplay, and I can’t express how happy I am to see him doing so well. Plus, the movie looks awesome.
Check it out.
Book three and book two
StandardFirst, a link: We’ve already had Jane Austen meets Dracula. Then we had Jane Austen and Zombies.
Now, finally, to complete the trifecta, we have Pride and Predator, courtesy of, yes, Elton John. (Seen via Bookslut.)
Would you really rather live in a different world than this one?
And now to more/less serious things. This morning I really dug into Man Bites World and did a lot of good work. I finished well, well over my daily quota–far enough over, in fact, that I was thinking I might manage my weekly quota by Friday and could (gasp!) sleep in on Saturday morning.
Then I came home and found my editorial notes on Everyone Love Blue Dog waiting in my inbox.
Which means it’s time to put book three aside and get back to book two, momentum or no. And the notes are very good, too, just what you’d expect. (Side note: I’m told book two will be coming out in May 2010, tentatively)
And unfortunately, they’re just what I was afraid of, too. The biggest note is on the ending. It’s meant to be a tragedy–violent, thrilling, and terrible, in which the protagonist is backed into a situation where he has to fight people he doesn’t want to fight.
Should I change it so he doesn’t fight them? So they don’t die, but instead wake up later with amnesia? Let his partner live to come back in another book? And that minor character? And that one and that one, too?
Too many corpses is the verdict. I don’t know what to think about that. That final fight scene was the scene the whole book was aiming toward. It’s why the protagonist is wrestling with PTSD in book three and is desperate for some kind of redemption.
And these are books about a basically decent guy who’s been drafted into an organization of ruthless killers. Should we expect him to get a little murderer on him sometimes?
At the same time, I understand the concern. The ending is very dark. Very dark. Maybe it’s “I’ll never read anything by this asshole again” dark. I don’t read many books like that, so why did I write one?
Seriously, I read books that are harrowing but basically fun, so why am I talking to my wife about comparisons between the basic brutality of incredibly powerful utterly alien supernatural beings and the sociopaths on third world death squads?
This is something I need to figure out. What makes you pick up a book you would consider “dark.” A book that is harsh and unforgiving to its characters, where they face deadly situations and actually die. When, if ever, do you go looking for that?
Thank you. Also: links
StandardThank you to everyone who commented on the cover art in my previous post. I’m very happy with it. The only decision I have left is whether to make my default LiveJournal icon out of the entire cover, as Anton Strout does, or just a blow-up of the head the way Tim Pratt does. What do you think?
or
?
Your input would be appreciated.
Also, I have been somewhat foolish in that I have not been providing links to the actual book at actual websites where you could actually purchase it if you actually wanted to. So! If you’d like to buy the book, now you can at any of these fine online retailers: Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble online or Mysterious Galaxy.
And now I go back to my regular life. FYI: the boy is off school this whole week, so I expect to fall behind on reading my f-list and not catch up for quite a while.
Enjoy your day!
Well! What have we here?!?!
StandardSo, I surfed over to Amazon.com to look into setting up a (new) associates account for myself, and what should I notice in “Your Recent History” section but cover art! For my book!
Who knew??
Here it is:
::ahem::
I likes it!
Skip this post if you hate Valentines Day
StandardBut first of all, I met today’s goal and made up the words I missed on Wednesday. The book is finally hitting its stride, thank Pikachu. Now, if only I hadn’t put in a bunch of exposition that was basically a repeat of 30 pages before…
I hate exposition.
Also: it’s Love Day. I got up at 4:30 to make Salad Eater the ginger pear scones she requested. I’d mixed the dry ingredients last night and wrapped her gift, too (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell). No flowers this year. That was an expensive book.
Unfortunately, I left to write today’s pages before she woke up, so her Love Day gifts were sitting on the table waiting for her. It would have been nicer if I was there, but it didn’t happen.
Time to collect my library books and go home.