Saturday, December 23, 2006

The Greatest Action Story Ever Told, Mad TV

I remember seeing this back when it first aired. I couldn't help but laugh. The last line is the best.


What a send off! Doctor Who Spoilers

WOW!

Very good send off for Rose!
My friends, Ian and Willard, did such a great job keeping it secret. When Mickey stayed in that alternate universe and there was a Rose dad who had lost his Jackie, it was a perfect set up, but my friends told me that was it for Mickey. Or they led me to believe that was it.

It was a perfect full circle. They set up Jackie's loneliness and her love for her husband since the very beginning and resolved it as she says "What have I done for my life." Now she and her lost husband are together.

I liked Rose but to be honest, there have been times when I wanted to shout at the screen "Look at Micky! He's trying! You're so head over heals on the Doctor you can't see that you're ignoring where you need to be!" She didn't have Lana-winer-itis but she was central minded. She needed the heart break. Only through heart break can we move onto the next, greater part of our life.

That black actress who became the first Cybermen victim did a nice enough job to empress the creators to sign her on as the new companion. Should be interesting to see how that works out. I know the runaway bride at the end wasn't the new companion. Ian and Kirk gave that away. That's OK though.

I loved how the Doctor imitated Bill Murray in Ghost Busters. He even got the voice slur that Murray does as Doctor Peter Vicman (I know, the spelling is off and I could go to IMDB and fix it, but I'm short on time right now).

I realized fairly early that the ghosts were coming from an alternate universe. I've seen too many alternate universe stories (and I love them all) to not pass up the signs. Once I realized that and the Doctor started to talk in ways that tipped it off, I started thinking of how stiff the "ghosts" were and then it was just another step to realize they were Cybermen and that Micky was coming back. I took Willard's advice and stayed far away from Sci Fi Channel because they were giving it all away in their previews. I managed to stay spoiler free! When the Doctor was describing the sphere I was certain it was the Beast/Satan/Devil inside. The Dylacs took me by surprise. I HAD to call back Willard and share my excitement.
It was fun watching the robots argue and insult each other. I LOVED IT! And then they tossed their catch phrases at each other. "Exterminate!" "Delete!" It made me wish Star Wars Episode 1 droids and Star Trek Borg were there to add "Roger, Roger" "You will be assimilated" to the chorus of robotic villains.

Ahhh. A fine meal. That's what that two-parter was. My only regret is that I have to wait till next year to see the season (3) that is just beginning in good ol' Londontown.

Friday, December 22, 2006

I wrote a New Parodyverse Story!

Christmas Special ‘06

Come check out the adventures of the Son of Santa!

Excited

Wow, here I sit at the beginning of Friday afternoon.

Tonight we're going to see a movie and that's always fun. This one is Night at the Museum. I've been waiting to see that one. It's looks filled with all the things I like in a movie; comedy and special effects! And as if that wasn't good enough, the premier for Fantastic Four II airs before the movie!

Then tomorrow will be a nice Saturday where well catch up on cleaning, baking and wrapping (and if I'm lucky, buying Marvel Legends!).

Then we have Christmas Eve, where we'll go light looking and family stuff, and finish Christmas dinner preparations.

THEN CHRISTMAS! I don't think I need to say more about that!

Then another day off with nothing to do except maybe write. ;)

So I'm VERY excited right now!

First pic of ther Silver Surfer!

Click me!

I can't wait!

And we're going to Night at the Museum tonight so I'll get to see the preview!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Full

Whew. I'm tired today. We had a pot luck lunch at work today and I ate too much.
Now that the work shift is done I'm ready for a nap!

Title to the next Harry Potter book

Well now we know.

It's called...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I guess this is the beginning of the end for the Potterverse. Of course no one knows what the title means, but we do know that we're on the home stretch now. Soon she'll be done writing it and I'll read it and then no more new Potter.

So in some ways the news has me excited an in other ways it has me sad.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Joseph Barbera, Rest in Peace

Cartoon legend Barbera dies at 95


As a child, Hanna & Barbera were my favorite cartoons. I watched as many as I could. The best was Laugh A Lympics, at least in my opinion.

I wanted to grow up and work for them. I had these characters and I would always play my own cartoons.

Nowadays there is a channel on the Satellite. It's a spin off of Cartoon Network. It's called Boomerang and every Saturday and Sunday morning they play tons of those classic H&B cartoons. It's the only that my Davie wants to watch at that time of day.

You will be missed.

Another submission

Well, I just submitted to another agency. I'll keep at it till someone represents me. There are plenty of fish in the sea!

Oh, and 6 more days till Christmas!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Positives and negatives

Well, the negative is that I received another rejection. This time from Shadow Mountain. That's a small imprint of the local Deseret Book. It's not bad in and of itself, because I really did not want to go with that small publisher, but this means another rejection.

Doesn't ANYONE want this book?

The positive is that I got some action figures in the mail. I'm excited to see them, but it's kind of tarnished because of the continual rejections.

1 week!

1 week before Christmas!

YAAAYY!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Little better

Sorry for my depressed attitude earlier, oh faceless lurkers. See? Sometimes I can get down too.

I don't know what the future will bring. I long for someone to give me a chance. Who knows.

But this is Christmas week and there is a lot I'm looking forward to so I'm swinging back to being happy and excited.

Kinda depressed

On the blog belonging to Lit Agent Jenny Rappaport, a question was raised...



Dear Jenny,

What is more marketable these days for fantasy and science fiction - series or trilogies?

Kimberley in Alaska

"Personally, I think trilogies are more marketable in general, but only because I can do the following. Say you've written me a great book about elves. I love your book. The editor I send it to loves your book. The publishing house wants to buy your book. Everything looks rosy! Then the editor we're doing the deal with calls me up one day and says, "Jenny, we love Kim's book. Does she have more? I'm thinking we'll make it a three-book deal." At which point, I call Kim, we have a little chat about making that book about elves into a trilogy, and voila, she whips up some material for me to e-mail off to the editor. The editor loves it, the publishing house loves it, and there we go, a contract for three books. (This is an idealized picture, by the way.)

The reasons why three is often the magic number in terms of series' are many and varied. From the pure publishing perspective, NO ONE is going to offer a new author a book deal for anything more than three books. It may occasionally happen, but it's really a statistical anomaly. You're an unknown quantity, even if your book is great, and when they make you an offer, they have to put their money where their mouth is. Simply put, more than three books is too great a financial risk to take. Many new authors don't get three-book deals on their first go; most will probably be given a two-book deal, if the agent is persuasive enough, and they love your writing enough. Some will only be given a one-book deal (with an option clause, of course).

This is something that you should be aware of, if you've planned out the next Harry Potter or GRRM saga. Structurally, it's better to make your masterpiece into a trilogy or a duology, since you're not going to get the book contract for more than that. Also, be aware of the fact that if you have an eight book series planned, and your first two books sell badly, they're not going to give you a publishing contract for the next six books. I have an online writing friend whose first two books sold decently, but didn't have spectacular sales numbers behind them. Her editor decided not to pick up her option book, which is the last one in her trilogy, based on the sales numbers. So it's not going to get published--at least not for the forseeable future. That sucks, and really, you'd like to avoid that happening. And trust me, it happens all the time."




Ouch. I've got a thirteen book series in my head and I just queried her. I responded with this...



Thank you for this information Jenny.

It’s kind of scary for me because my over all story arch is a thirteen book saga.
It shows three hundred years of world history through the eyes of vampire children so it would be hard to cram that all in to three books.
I suppose I shouldn't’t concern myself though. The first one is a stand-alone story and all the others are planned to be. All thirteen would hook together into a bigger story but each one would have it’s own proper conclusion.
I’ll just keep hoping I get the first one published. If people like it, then each book will have to stand on it’s own.





OK, some guy replied to me...



annabelle's scribe:

A single title is a one night stand. A series is like a marriage: the publisher has to know you can deliver on time, on spec, no b.s., no excuses. Do you have proof that you can do 13 books? More to the point, can you do 13 books?

A trilogy can be just one long book -- like LOTR. But if you extend out beyond that you start running into the structural differences that define a series. Series have their own issues -- back story that starts accumulating like barnacles, the fact that characters can't have much of an arc, the out-of-control proliferation of characters and subplots (see George R.R. Martin).

Series come naturally to some people, but it's easy to see why publishers are dubious.



Double ouch. I know he has a point. I believe I can do 13 books, but how will I ever prove that?
Maybe I shouldn't have joined Miss Snark's Crapometer. After this, and another rejection I got in the mail yesterday, how will I take it when she obviously is going to tear me up?

I'm fooling myself.