Year: 2009

What’s on the Bookshelf? Vol. 7

What's On the Bookshelf?

What would you do if all of a sudden you were resurrected alongside history’s famous and infamous?

Why, explore and start new societies, of course.

I just finished reading Philip Jose Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go, the first book in the Riverworld series.

It’s an interesting concept. An advanced society nicknamed The Ethicals by protagonist  Sir Richard Burton cloned and transplanted most people who have ever lived to this planet, Riverworld (the River is about 10 million miles long). The reason? Well, Burton isn’t quite sure. He gets different reasons from different people.

It’s an intriguing idea, and I look forward to reading the other books in the series.

Backstory here, backstory there, backstory everywhere!

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I like backstory far too much. So much that I end up working on it for months, little minute details of characters’ lives that will never see the light of day.

It leaves me drained. Writing about what happens in the actual context of a story shouldn’t be that hard, but with all the backstory I come up with…to quote my roommate, “Why don’t you just tell the backstory?” It would be a lot easier.

I should. I really should. But I’m a glutton for punishment in the creative sphere of things.

Should I just wing it? To Hell with the backstory? Or should I continue with my insane planning, as ultimately every action has a reason, even if said reason is twelve years in the past?

Dealing with Prima Donna Characters

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I’m not sure how it happened. There they were, minding their own business, being perfectly fine main characters…until they met the secondary ones.

My secondary characters have the habit of being demanding. They don’t like being secondary. They feel they are more important than the main characters. And I believe them.

Geoffrey, the subject of my never-ending-ever-revisiting fantasy story, began his life as a typical mentor type for this wide-eyed-naif Thomas. Geoffrey quickly assured me (well, it took a year or two) that he was far more interesting than Thomas who was just a typical idiot on a quest. Geoff’s a rather bored historian who runs a Boston hotel.

See also Liv. He was supposed to be the second in command to a space ship captain (who was the primary character). Liv told me that as a grumpy, I-hate-children type person, he’d be better suited as the main character. He must be the center of attention at all times. Well, they’re on terra firma and Liv is still the center of attention. Cheeky little scene stealer.

Thank God Geoff and Liv reside in different universes. I’d never get a story told with their egos butting around.

Destroying characters in one smack

General Geekiness

Ah, the pages of pulp fiction. A place to lose yourself in the fast paced world of fancy…or laugh hysterically at an author’s expense.

I’m currently reading Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons. It’s light and a quick read; thus far I have only one major beef.

How idiotic can the physicist Vittoria Vetra be?

Case in point:

“Is the Pantheon even a church?”

It is. Vittoria, you’re Italian. You’re apparently intelligent (you helped create an antimatter-creating particle accelerator for Chrissake) and your adopted father was a ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST. I imagine he must have taught you something about it amongst all the math and science.

I realize that not everyone knows the Pantheon is a church or that it is in Rome (no, it isn’t the Parthenon, that’s in Athens). But seriously.

Hollywood, oh Hollywood

General Geekiness

Good luck trying to use discount cards or free movie passes on this summer’s hottest blockbusters.

Hollywood execs have denied theatres the ability to let patrons use these, saying its better for business.

These passes can be used after 10 days.

That means I’ll be seeing Star Trek on May 18. Hell, I didn’t see Dark Knight until nearly three weeks after it had been released, so I’m not concerned.