The strict firewalls at my place of employment have been great for my fiction-reading habits, lately.  Instead of surfing the net, checking e-mails, and reading blogs and journals during my lunch break, I hunker down in the lunch room with a novel and plow through thirty-odd  pages of fiction.  And recently it's been a pretty great crop of stuff.  Just in this last stretch of weeks, I wrapped up Ian McDonald's brilliant River of Gods, Justina Robson's enjoyable near-future thriller Mappa Mundi, and William Gibson's latest "non-SF" novel Spook Country.

Spook Country would probably be my favorite of the three.  Gibson has really been pushing my buttons lately.  When I read Pattern Recognition, I thought of it as "non-SF," but now I'm thinking you could call his recent stuff work of "the far present."  This is so my type of writing it's not even funny.  For years I've been trying to combine near-future SF with a John LeCarre espionage feel, but how the hell do I compete with William Gibson?

Gibson also does something here that most writers can't pull off; Spook Country is filled with passive protagonists.  He has three main characters, and though they all make choices and, well, do things, in general they are all being swept along by events, manipulated by other people, or caught up in systems.  There is a sense that all the planning and moving and shaking and "protagging" is going on offscreen, and we're only seeing the story obliquely through our partially aware non-heroes.  And it works.  I'm particularly sensitive to this because much of my own writing has traditionally been filled with characters who are, by design, being manipulated by unseen forces behind the scenes, or maneuvered by invisible hands, and not exactly sure what's going on.  This is a persistent thematic issue in my work, I think--considering the nature of power and control, and how people use it and leverage it and deploy it against one another.  It's not always a pretty point to make, but it's part of our world and something that matters to me.  I don't always want aggressive, decisive heroes changing the world; I want to see normal people, reacting to what's going around them, and struggling to make sense of their place in it.

More often than not, featuring these types of characters in a story is considered a failing of the work.  "Your protagonist doesn't protag!"  I want to respond, "That's the point!"  Yes, in life people act, but they are also acted upon.  Sometimes the world is the protagonist.   Well...no shit, right?  I guess we don't always want to read about that.  But to me it seems that not only do readers prefer an active, "heroic" protagonist, they seem to resent it when they don't get one.  My response:  "Hard cheese!"  Which is generally followed by the feeling that I must be doing it all wrong.  :)  Not so with Gibson--he does it brilliantly here.  And, maybe, proves that it can be done and that there's a market for that kind of thing, which gives me some hope.

Provided I ever start writing again (let alone getting it right), with all this reading going on!  This week I've moved on to Halting State by Charles Stross--an entire near-future SF novel written in the second person?  (Why do I suspect he'll pull it off?)  Lots of great near-future novels to sink my teeth into, lately, and of course I still have Futurismic submissions to read in the morning, too.  I might have to switch gears soon to avoid near-future overkill!

Finally, after many months of hiatus, I'll be getting back to work reading new submissions for Futurismic!

I have to admit, for a while there I was questioning whether we'd ever get back to buying new stories, but now that we're are I'm looking forward to seeing what comes over the transom.

Of course, now I also have to figure out how to balance it with my work, my own writing, and life in general...!

The Futurismic train keeps on rolling...new Futurismic chief (and long-time workhorse) Paul Raven has just posted our latest fiction offering, "Mallory" by Leonard Richardson.  This is Leonard's first published story, and it's the kind of story I live to find when I'm reading the submissions--the kind that just jumps out of the pile and blows your doors off.  I have to say there's nothing more satisfying than finding a great story by a writer who's never been published before, and having the honor of giving them their first sale.  I've been lucky enough to "discover" a few people that way and it never gets old.

If all goes well, I'll be back to work reading slush for Futurismic very, very soon...it's almost time to pan for more gold!

One thing I miss about unemployment is having all the time in the world to write.  There may have been no money coming in, but boy was I turning out pages:  scripts and fiction both.  On the other hand, it was much easier to procrastinate writing, too; after all, there was always more time, right?  So I wrote a lot, but I wasn't even remotely efficient about it.

Now that I'm working again, there's a lot less time to write, so I have to make it count.  Of course, I've hardly written at all since the new job started, which I've been chalking up to getting used to a new schedule and circumstances.  But after five weeks of adjustment, I think things have stabilized enough for that excuse not to fly any more.  So I'm going to start trying to get back to some disciplined writing habits.

I've been telling everyone that working nights should be good for my writing, since I can write in the mornings (which is when I usually feel like it) before going in for the "day job."  Time to put up or shut up!  I've got three short stories, a novel, a spec script, and three original TV series bubbling around in my brain right now--oh, and maybe half of a feature film, and maybe make that four original TV series.  You get the point.  I need to start bashing them out, one at a time.  If I'm lucky, I might finish one of them before Futurismic opens for submissions and I have to readjust my work habits again!

So, a little writing every day--that's the goal for now.  I'm kicking things off today with a modest little four-paragraph blog post...you've got to start somewhere!

I'm very pleased to announce that Futurismic has just relaunched its fiction section!  We've started with a novelette by the wonderful Eliot Fintushel, "Uxo, Bomb Dog," and will be publishing a new story on the first Monday of every month moving forward.  We're also planning to look at new submissions again in April.  I hope you'll swing by and check us out!

The site's fiction section has been dormant for about a year now, and it's been a real thorn in my side.  I'm excited to get back to work!

For some reason, every now and then I have a dream involving someone famous.  These tend to be some of my weirder, more memorable dreams...like attending a picnic with Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork of the Monkees, or getting drunk with Ann-Margret in a courtroom while Paul Lynde sings tunes from "Bye Bye Birdie."  (Yes these are real dreams...)

Last night's was vivid:  I was sitting on the floor of Frank Zappa's apartment...in Iowa City.  Zappa was sitting on the couch.  There was a puddle next to his feet with fingernail clippings floating in it.  (??)  Also present were Tommy Mars (keyboards) and Chad Wackerman (drums), his former bandmates, who said and did nothing, and who I never even saw, but were nontheless there.  Ah, dreams!

I was sitting on the floor across from Zappa, with my bass guitar.  It was my first bass, a weaksauce brown starter Gibson, and appallingly it only had three strings.  I remember thinking, "Shit, I hope he doesn't notice this--I'll never keep this gig."

Anyway, Zappa is yelling at his sound engineer, who is British (?) and is futzing around in my parents' piano room.  Eventually Zappa fires the sound engineer, who just kind of vanishes.  At this point I say something like, "I'm sorry that didn't work out."  And Zappa replies,  "It's for the best. We're all going to have another birthday, anyway."   Which made me think, wait a second, didn't he die already?

The dream ended before the jam session--probably a good thing, considering the state of my bass!

Last week Jenn and I finished watching the DVD set for Rome, season two.  For the uninitiated, Rome is an ambitious HBO series that basically retells the history of the Roman empire, with a heavy focus on the major figures of the time, but also featuring story-lines involving two fictional Roman soldiers whose exploits often serve as a clever "secret history" angle to the epic goings-on.  (The series also revels in describing the decadent social mores of the time, so be forewarned--sex and especially gore are on the menu.)

I really, really enjoyed season one, and while I heard that season two was even better, I don't quite agree.  Clearly there is enough history in the second season to cover at least two seasons, and in my opinion they should have; everything felt a bit rushed.  I found it difficult to develop sympathies for the new figures introduced--inasmuch as sympathy is possible, as there aren't a lot of sympathetic characters here!  It all just flies by too quickly.  Also jarring was the replacement of the actor who played Octavian with a new one (I can see why they chose to do it, but I think it contributed to a sense of lost continuity from the first year).  So overall I didn't think it was quite as strong as season one, but I still enjoyed it, particularly for the way they develop the Vorenus-Pullo friendship.  It's really too bad they pulled the plug on this show.

I also finally saw Enter the Dragon for the first time .  Yeah, Bruce Lee isn't cool at all, is he?  Great 1970s camp, groovy Lalo Schifrin music, and sick fight scenes--pretty fun stuff!

This week I started reading Ian McDonald's River of Gods, which is great futurismicky SF that really, really makes me wish I could write like that.  I  also started in on The Wire season four, which, well, really, really makes me wish I could write like that too!  (Best.  Show.  Ever.  Bar none!)

That's it for now--back to blowing my nose...

If you missed the news:  I landed a job!  I start next Monday.  Woot!  I told myself I was going to really enjoy this final week of unemployment.  Unfortunately last night while playing WoW I had a sneezing fit--and I now seem to have come down with a nasty headcold.  I think it's one of those illnesses that comes along right when you think it's safe to let your guard down.  "I finally got the job, now I can relax...ACHOOO!"

Hopefully I can kick it quickly and enjoy the rest of this week!  I was kind of hoping I could finish my new story before I go back to work...

Thanks to the awesome little movie gift card I got for Christmas, I saw the film Atonement this week.  I'm an easy draw for World War II era dramas, and this is a pretty good one--high romance, great production values, a strong plot and an effective, interesting structure.   James McAvoy and Keira Knightley have pretty good chemistry here, and the acting is uniformly strong.

If I have a problem with the film, it's that--like many Oscar-contenders--it's one of those movies that screams "I am an Oscar contender!"  It's flashy and grandiose and manipulative.  I generally react poorly to having my buttons pushed when watching a movie--or maybe it's more accurate to say, I lack some of the buttons that films like this try to push.  When it comes to movies, nothing breaks the spell for me more than being led by the hand to feel a certain way.

Despite that, overall I enjoyed the film.  It's not without its surprises and it's certainly well made.   And for history buffs, the military reenactment of the Dunkirk evacuation is top-notch.  Worth a look!

Heya folks!  Woke up at 5AM for no reason, so here's an ad hoc entertainment report:

I almost titled this post "Egoboo for My &$^%ing Story"!  TTA Press' new online fiction review 'zine, The Fix, has posted a very positive review of my short story "The Scarlet Number," published very recently by Hub.  I have to say, I kind of prefer the good reviews to the indifferent ones...  :)

Recently watched film:  Charlie Wilson's War.  Leave it to Aaron Sorkin to make such a sober topic so engaging and funny--but not without its message.  I found it a very good, interesting historical film, about the unlikely alliance of a left-wing congressman, a right-wing socialite, and an unpopular CIA officer as they work together to fund a covert war to help the Afghanis repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  A well structured film of historical interest, although I really don't think Tom Hanks and especially Julia Roberts are truly Aaron Sorkin actors (in the true Allison Janney or Bradley Whitford style, for example).  Philip Seymour Hoffman is fantastic, however.  (But what else is new?)

Recently read:  I found time for a couple of novels recently.  The first was The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod, a near-future global thriller about a terrorist conspiracy in the UK.  I found it very compelling reading, despite not one but two "WTF!" moments that need not be disclosed here, but which sort of ripped me from the narrative.  Overall, though, a very strong, dark book.  The second was Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore, his first novel and first of the "Three Californias" trilogy.  It's a pretty good 1980s science fiction novel, involving a small California community of survivors in the wake of a nuclear war.  Not quite as engaging to me as some of Robinson's more recent stuff, but quite well written and interesting to look at in terms of theme and process--you can see a lot of later Robinson in this early book.  I definitely plan to continue with the trilogy.

Recently watched TV set:  The Sandbaggers (Season 1).  An early 80s spy series out of the UK, featuring Roy Marsden as the bitter, dastardly, and whip-smart director of operations for the British secret service.  It's definitely a product of its time, spy fiction rather in the mold of LeCarre', with a shoestring budget and very heavy on the dialogue.  While it doesn't always quite have LeCarre's finesse, I pretty much love this show, which tells its tales of espionage largely from the point of view of the bureaucrats and politicians in charge of planning and authorizing the operations--often with questionable motives, of course.  I wouldn't be surprised if Marsden's Neil Burnside is the inspiration for Peter Finch's spymaster in the recent UK spy series MI-5 (Spooks in the UK)--or maybe it's just some British tradition of angry espiocrats.  :)  Anyway, The Sandbaggers probably isn't for everybody, but if you're into spy stuff at all, you might give it a shot in your Netflix queue.  This is my second time around with the series, and I recall the second season being the best.

Finally, one more thing:  I have been a supporter, and have tried to be a writer, of Mundane SF since I first heard about it.  Now James Patrick Kelly has tackled the subject in his latest Asimov's column, and if you have any interest in the subject, I strongly suggest you check it out.  He pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter entirely--but much more articulately than I ever could have done.  Check it out!

Now...do I go back to sleep, or soldier on through the day...?

Late last night I heard from Damien Broderick that my short story "Frame of Mind" has been accepted for publication at Cosmos Online!

I don't sell stories very often, so coming so hot on the heels of this news, I feel a little like I just got hit by lightning twice in a week...

My short story "The Scarlet Number" has just been published by the free weekly PDF 'zine Hub.  Check it out here if you get a chance!

My journey to becoming a screenwriter has faced many roadblocks.  Cynical instructors.  Moving to the midwest.  A writer's strike that's paralyzing Hollywood.  Um, well, also, you know...not pursuing it for about 16 years.  (Yeah, all right, mostly that one.)

Last night, another roadblock--I woke up in the middle of the night, thinking about *gasp* fiction.  My last few fiction projects were very disappointing exercises.  I was writing stories that seemed fundamentally and irreparably broken.  And even when I felt I was succeeding at what I wanted to do in the story, it wasn't working for my critiquers or editors.  I pretty much gave up on them.

Well, this morning at about five AM, I woke up and found myself tiredly wrestling with fiction demons.  I came up with a potential fix for one of the stories I'd abandoned, aptly titled "Design Flaw" (guffaw), and partially plotted another story that I was never able to get off the ground.  I actually had to get out of bed and go write things down. 

I've been so focused on film and TV lately, I kind of got the impression that I'd gotten the short story bug out of my system.  But I guess it's not that easy to shake off something you've been working at for fifteen years!

As you might expect, there's a big difference between Iowa City and Los Angeles when it comes to movie-going opportunities.  When I left, Iowa City had three mall theaters and two screens at the university.  Los Angeles has...uh, well, several more than that.  And frankly I don't even remotely need all of them; between the Arclight Cinemas and the Laemmle Theaters, my movie-going needs are covered.  (It helps to have a girlfriend and local buddies who love to go to the movies!)

Here are capsule reviews--mostly spoiler-free, I think--of all the movies I saw in the theater in 2007, including some I'm a little embarrassed about.  ☺  A total of 16 films, probably the most I've seen in the theater since my NYU days.
 

Hey look, a follow-up post!

So far I'm off to a decent start getting back to work.  I've done some job-hunting, sent out some resumes, and even submitted a story to Asimov's for the first time in a while.   (How weird to actually print out a manuscript and, like, mail it...feels so old school!)

Working back into good writing habits has been a bit more difficult, so far.  For me, writing productivity is all about momentum--when I have it I can usually keep it going, but when I don't it's like pushing a boulder uphill.  I'm also finding myself torn between what kind of project to work on.  A lingering sense of "sale fever" makes me want to produce fiction, but my brain is solidly in screenplay mode lately.  Perhaps a little of both?  I'll figure it out, and hopefully get that momentum back soon.

I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but this year I seem to have made one without really planning on it.  I want to be more communicative and social, particularly online.  I also want to be better about responding to e-mails promptly and staying in touch with my friends around the country.  I used to be great about this kind of thing but in the past several years it's gotten away from me.  Hopefully I can get it back in 2008--so far, so good!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and wish everyone a fantastic New Year!

I spent my holidays right here in sunny California...well, actually it was a slightly gloomy California, but after watching yesterday's outdoor hockey game from Buffalo, I can't complain about the weather!  Jenn's mom came to visit and the three of us had a wonderful Christmas together, eating great meals, watching movies, gaming and relaxing.  Plus:  great Christmas loot!

Now that we've reached the new year, though, I'm anxious to move out of holiday mode and back to a normal schedule.  I think I had a strong sense of discipline about writing and job-hunting and structuring my time going into the holidays, and I need to get back to that.  Time to get back to work!  (In every sense of the word...!)

Hope everyone has a great 2008!

Just so you all know, several weeks ago I started writing a post entitled "I Hate Blogging"...but, heh, I didn't finish it.  Besides, how would I know if I hate it or not?

I've been thinking I should make a resolution to post more in 2008.  For now, though, some writing news:  my short story "The Scarlet Number" has been picked up for publication in the online science fiction 'zine Hub.  I only just received word, so I'm not sure when it will appear, but hey, that will give me another reason to post later!

That story was one of my last ones in circulation, since I haven't been writing fiction lately.  Since the big move I have been concentrating exclusively on screenwriting.  I still have a lot to learn, but so far I've been having fun with the new formats, and I've written roughly 500 pages of  material in the past six months.  I'm not convinced any of it is ready to be shown around or anything, but it's been good practice, and I feel like I'm learning a lot as I go.  Eventually I hope to get there!  And as for fiction, I still feel the pull of it, so maybe I will get back to that as well--certainly I have some stories that haven't even been marketed yet, but for need of revision.   I think taking a break and writing in a new medium for a while will give me a new perspective on it, too.

For anyone on the Futurismic watch, the blog is back to posting regularly, but unfortunately the fiction section is still in limbo.  We're still waiting on some technical work to be done before we can start posting stories and accepting submissions again, and so far nobody on the team has  had the combination of time and skill to work on it.  I haven't given up on it yet, but I certainly hope we can move forward soon.  With my luck, we'll be back ready for full slushpile mode right when I land a job...  :)

Other than that, everything's going well--I've basically been job-hunting, writing a lot, and enjoying life!  We've been on a bit of a budget lately, but Jenn and I have been keeping ourselves busy and entertained.  Since my last post we've done weekend trips to Oakland and Phoenix and we've seen a few Kings games at Staples Center, but mostly we've been keeping it close to our happy home and hanging out with friends.  Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

If you absolutely hate the concept of Mundane SF--as many apparently do--there is now yet another comments thread in existence solely for the purpose of bashing it.

I hate threads like this.  Note all the posters jumping on the bandwagon to beat this harmless concept into the ground like's it some kind of threat to anybody's taste.  You almost get the feeling that these people assume there is a hip, happening club somewhere, where all the hot young Mundane SF writers are hanging out reveling in their self-importance, or engaging in snooty poetry-slams about aliens and FTL drives.  In reality I think the Mundanes are just writers sitting at their computers trying to write good SF, but maybe that's too down-to-earth or something...

I like Mundane SF.  The name, although I understand where it comes from, doesn't really do it justice.  But the Mundane Manifesto nicely defines the kind of near-term futures I most like to read about in SF.  I think the upshot of Mundane SF is that it challenges writers to focus on more immediate issues and problems.  Maybe that chafes at people who prefer not to think about our ugly reality when they're reading for fun, I don't know.  Maybe if the Mundanes called them "guidelines" instead of a manifesto, it wouldn't raise anybody's eyebrows.

Anyway...grumble grumble grumble.  It just seems weird to me that the idea of Mundane SF is still pissing  people off...certainly the thread doesn't strike me as worthy of a Locus Online link.

Wow, okay, so time got away from me again and here it is six weeks since my last post.  I will probably never get the hang of this online journal business...but you know what?  I'm okay with that!
 
Just as a catch-the-hell-up kind of post, here's a bunch of stuff that has happened since my last journal entry:

•    My parents were in town for several days in late June/early July.  During their visit we went to the Getty Center, toured Disney Hall in downtown LA, drove up and down Sunset Boulevard, went to Paradise Cove in Malibu (where Jim Rockford used to park his trailer!), and ate a boatload of awesome food (seafood, Japanese, the vaunted More Than Waffles, etc.).  It was a fun visit!
•    I finally bought a car:  a used Hyundai Elantra. 
•    I finished a draft of my ScriptFrenzy feature:  110 pages of talky intriguing near-future espionage!  I haven't touched it since, but will probably do revisions at some point.
•    I started sending out resumes finally.  Is it rare to be seriously job-hunting for just the second time in my life at my age?  It's feels a bit weird and unfamiliar.  I really have no idea how marketable I am as an employee.  I guess I'll find out!
•    I bought a new five-string bass!  Thanks to some gift-card generosity from some  awesome new friends and Jenn's wonderful encouragement, I landed a teal-green (?) Yamaha from Guitar Center and have already played more bass in the past week than I had in the previous...three years?  I now have all the gear I need to get back into playing, except for calluses.  Gotta earn those!

And that's not all:  Jenn and I saw a play based on a Neil Gaiman graphic novel and hit a short film screening....I read a terrific historical espionage thriller by Alan Furst (Dark Voyage, WWII action and intrigue)...I discovered the music of Bumblefoot and Kultur Shock (rawk out!)...I've been toying around with TV pilot ideas...slowly processing Futurismic slush...digitizing my CD collection...meeting great new friends and writing with a lot of them at Lulu's, sometimes twice a week...abusing periods of ellipses...and...and...and...

Busy busy busy!  It seems somehow backward that I'm busier now than when I was employed full-time.  But so far I'm digging it!

Many, many years ago I went to NYU on a screenwriting scholarship.  For some reason, I wanted to be the Hitchcock of science fiction films, and for some other reason, I thought that was even possible.  (Dude?)  Unfortunately I ended up leaving the program after two years.  Among other things, horror stories of writerly disappointment from my industry instructors scared me off the film business.

Well, when in LA...I have years and years of writing disappointment under my belt, now, so maybe this time I'm ready for it.  :D 

To try again I'll be participating (unofficially, anyway) in Script Frenzy during the month of June.  It's like NaNoWriMo (sp?) for screenplays; the idea is to complete a feature script in the course of a month.  I will be adapting my own 27,000-word near future spy novella, which I wrote last year under the delusion that there is a place where 27,000-word near future spy novellas are published.  (Dude?)  Wish me luck!

I have every intention of continuing to process the Futurismic submission pile while this is going on, by the way, so sitting at my laptop may feel a lot like a full-time job this month!