On Other Blogs

Bittersweet Sacrifice

by

Bittersweetsacrifice
You can always count on the Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels for a good laugh, especially when they are skewering bad romance novel covers. This is my favorite from today’s collection:

Sarah: Yeah, you know what that bittersweet sacrifice is? Marrying him knowing that he’s GAY.

Or, now that I take a closer look, it could be that the one on the left
has to sacrifice her schmeckie because she’s a MAN, baby, YEAH.

Candy: Once again: Willem Dafoe in drag is NOT an acceptable substitute for a female model.

Agent 007, eh?

by

My friend David Breckman wrote and produced a hilarious pilot for USA Network called UNDERFUNDED, about a spy for the Canadian Secret Service (yes, they have one).  He’s still waiting to hear if USA is going to pick it up. But in the mean time, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (yes, they have TV networks up there) has announced that production has begun on INTELLIGENCE, a Canadian drama series (yes, they still have a couple shows of their own up there) about, you guessed it, Canadian spies (yes, they have them). The show is from Chris Haddock, the Canadian Steven Bochco, with financial help from every Canadian government entity except, it seems, the Department of Fish & Game.

“Intelligence takes place in the underworld where crime and
government meet. Part mystery, part thriller, all character and
conspiracy,” says Haddock. “It’s a new and volatile mix of gangster and
spy genres that should be pretty addictive. It’s gonna be a lot of fun
to watch.”

Intelligence is a Haddock Entertainment production produced with the
financial participation of CBC, Telefilm Canada, the CTF – License Fee
Program, the Canadian Western Independent Program Fund, the Canadian
and British Columbian Production Tax Credit Programs and CBC
International Sales.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Well

by

Chris Well has given MR. MONK GOES TO THE FIREHOUSE a warm review. Here’s an excerpt:

Novelist (and TV writer) Lee Goldberg does a remarkable job of
capturing the wit and spark of the series, while exploring the
possibilities that come with a different medium. The story is told from
the point of view of Natalie, adding more layers to the narrative than
possible in a regular episode.

Thanks, Chris!

My Ending is Beautiful, too

by

During a Q&A at Lincoln Center, Jane reports that author T.C. Boyle took on book critic NY Times book critic Michiko Kakutani for not liking his new novel TALK, TALK.

On Talk, Talk‘s ending and Michiko Kakutani’s recent attack on it in the New York Times:
"The ending is beautiful, no matter what you might have heard from one
bitter, acerbic individual who’s miserable with her bleak reviewer’s
life.  She wanted a more shoot-’em-up ending.  But I think you’ll find
the book’s ending is a lot subtler, and a lot more beautiful, than
that.  Here, I’ll read it for you so you can judge for yourself. I’ll
read the last sentence backwards because I don’t want to spoil it: "Her
behind in crowding universe the in sky blue the all with, ascendant,
him to next right, there her put he and too smile a her gave he." Now
you tell me, isn’t that beautiful?

(To be fair to Boyle, the Jane poster acknowledges that the quote is not verbatim, he relied on notes, not a recording).

Miami Hell

by

Kim Masters at Slate Magazine looks at the troubled production of the MIAMI VICE movie.

on Miami Vice things went so wrong that Foxx ended up
leaving in the middle of production, after a shooting (and we don’t
mean the kind with a camera) took place during filming in the Dominican
Republic. Foxx refused to return for any more work outside the United
States, meaning that Mann had to rewrite the ending, eliminating a
version that was to have been shot in Paraguay.

"The whole of
making this movie was filled with adversity," Mann says. But he adds
that whatever the crew might have endured, it was all in the service of
making a great film. "Sometimes folks are going to join this unit and
they may have a tough time," he says. "Guess what? They’re on the wrong
movie."

Jumping into the Frying Pan

by

Bryce Zabel gives readers an inside look at the development and production of M.A.N.T.I.S., the first TV series about a black superhero.

Anyway, the deal was, "M.A.N.T.I.S."
had started as a two-hour pilot, written by Sam Hamm (“Batman”) and
directed by Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man”). The two Sams had a disagreement
with Fox about how the series should go, and walked away from their own
project. Fox still wanted to do the series, but somebody needed to make
the changes and run the show. Both Hamm and Raimi were extremely
gracious and understanding in the transition, nothing was made
personal, and the series lived.

For me, that’s a pure TV moment. Bryce mentions it casually…but it’s outrageous and insane. And yet, this kind of thing happens so often in TV, we take it as normal. But think about it: Two guys create, produce and direct a pilot, praying that it will sell…and when it does, they end up walking away from the show. And Fox, who ordered the pilot and bought the show based on their vision, lets them go.  Now the studio and network have to scramble to find someone else… who wasn’t involved with the show before… to take it over and supply a new, creative vision. Fast.  It’s a thankless, no-win situation for the new showrunner but Bryce took it on and made the show his own.  Because he’s a pro.  I’ve been in a similar position two or three times myself (SHE-WOLF OF LONDON, MARTIAL LAW, etc.) and you just dive in, do your best with as much enthusiasm as possible, and try not to think about all the landmines in your path.

She Really, Really Cared

by

Tari Akpodiete pointed me to this posting on BoingBoing:

SF writer Lynda Williams sez, "My daughter (18) cared SO much about the ending of the Animorph series ‘selling out’ the readers that loved it with a nasty ending, that she has taken a whole year off school (sigh! be careful what you model!) to write an alternative ending as good as the books ever were! And she did it despite knowing it had to be considered fan fic and couldn’t be a way to start a writing career — just because she really, really
cared."

She took a year off school to write fanfic? Good God, how stupid.

I’m sure some of you will say that I’m being a jerk, that the girl took a year off to hone her writing skills and complete a novel.

And to you, I say, it’s fanfic.  I can see how you might write a short piece of fanfic for yourself  (ie not posted on the Internet or distributed to others) as a writing exercise. That could be useful and instructive. But spending a year toiling on a fanfic novel? That’s just pathetic.  It’s one step removed from becoming a Jareo.

It’s shame her mother, a professional writer,  couldn’t have given her daughter better guidance instead of encouraging her in this masturbatory and pointless pursuit (and, worse, being proud of it). 

Williams could have taught her daughter something about intellectual property, copyright and the importance of respecting the creative rights of other authors. It doesn’t say whether the work was posted on the Internet…but I hope it wasn’t. But if it was, I hope that Williams didn’t congratulate her daughter on that, too.

Williams could have encouraged her daughter to channel her passion for "Animorphs,"  and the way she felt the story should be told, by creating an entirely original work of her own that perhaps embodied the same ideals and explored the same themes. That would have been a worthwhile, enriching, constructive use of her time, effort and passion.

Wouldn’t it have been great if Williams’ daughter took a year off and ended up with a finished novel of her own?  Now that would be something to be proud of. 

But an 18-year-old spending a year on fanfic?

I wouldn’t be proud of that. I’d be embarrassed. 

The Name of Noir is Marlowe

by

Duane Swierczynski pointed me to an excellent Mystery File article about author Dan J. Marlowe. Duane writes:

Marlowe’s life story has enough twists and turns for at least three or
four Gold Medal novels. Marlowe was widowed at a young age, became
close buddies with one of the most notorious bank robbers of the 1960s,
and later in his career, suffered a stroke that wiped away his
memory–but not his writing ability. Somehow, through all of this, he
wrote some extremely fine hardboiled novels, the best being his first
two Earl Drake books:  THE NAME OF THE GAME  IS DEATH and ONE ENDLESS HOUR. 

Duane is a right — those are two great books. But if you read NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH, and you must, be sure to get the first version, not the subsequent rewrite where some of Earl Drake’s very, very rough edges were smoothed out so he could become (following ONE ENDLESS HOUR)  the improbable hero of a series of secret agent novels.

Man Titty

by

Deathunsung_1
The hilarious Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels are at it again, reviewing some terrible book covers:

Sarah: It is a moderately-known fact that I had a breast
reduction 11 years ago. 7+ lbs. of tissue were removed. I think he
received in transplant what I had taken out.

Now, do you need inflated man-titty to be a demon hunter? Perhaps if I’d kept my old boobs, I’d be a demon hunter now.

Candy: If I were him, I’d be so worried about scratching my
chest with those talons on my hands. I mean, what if I puncture
something? It’s hard to be appropriately terrifying when there’s a jet
of saline squirting out of one’s (rapidly deflating) chestal region.