Meanwhile…

Just to aim for the most annoying story possible for Jordan over at Every Day Fiction:

#

Hospital bills for broken rib: $800

Therapy costs for traumatized child: $300  an hour

Ginsu knife to make sure the bastard never does it again: priceless

#

I expect my acceptance notice shortly.

Edit: oops, just realized I went with “abusive spouse” rather than “cheating spouse.” That, clearly, calls for an entirely different story.

#

Magnifying glass to spot the glitter and mysterious blond hairs: $25

Private detective fees to confirm suspicions: $150 an hour

Ginsu knife to make sure the bastard never does it again: priceless

#

Yeah, started in on Veronica Mars this weekend. Whoever was in charge of informing me of this show’s awesomeness will be fed to the alligators for dereliction of duty.

Fresh new rejection waiting for me this morning. They said they loved everything but the part that I thought was the most fun and clever. So I don’t know what to think about that. No matter, there are other homes at which it will fit, I hope. I just have to sit on it for a month awaiting submission periods. Sigh.

Other than that, I’m juggling about half a dozen writing projects at once. It’s a little tiring.

It seems this sketchbook has been too long without a sketch!

I’ve been planning since the site launch to have art depicting various scenes or characters from my stories. I have received a couple of preliminary sketches from friend Katie and it is pretty exciting!

tee-hee. As a follow up to the continuing drama of the Russet Moon ridiculousness, I must point you toward Peter David’s “Potato Moon” project.

http://www.peterdavid.net/index.php/2009/04/20/potato-moon-rising/

On kind of a Chandler adaptation kick lately, I watched The Big Sleep last night (just a week or two ago it was The Long Goodbye – if you want a really good time, watch both of these followed by The Big Lebowski). Despite the extraordinarily convoluted plot, it’s a good time. You could tell the writers knew how hard the plot was to follow - there are several points in the film where everything just sort of stops so the characters can sum up what the hell has been going on. You almost don’t even notice the “who killed the chauffeur” plot hole. Mostly you just watch to see Bogey flirt with beautiful women.

Which is what brings me to the inspiration for this post. One of my problems (as I hinted in my last post) with Dollhouse is how the dolls are treated. They’re sex slaves, and it doesn’t seem to bother any of the employees. The show itself doesn’t seem to give the issue a second thought. There are certainly ways that it could be used to discuss a deep moral quandary, but it mostly seems like the show just uses it as an excuse to have Eliza walk around without pants.

The Big Sleep definitely features women as sex objects. Every female in the movie throws herself at Marlowe. (In fact, I thought the scene with him and the girl in the bookstore – played by stunning Dorothy Malone – was  way sexier than any of the euphemism-laden flirting he engaged in with Bacall.) And Bogey has a blast with it; he’s far from being the best looking guy in Hollywood, but he plays the role with a slick flair that makes the viewer totally buy it.

So we’ve got two different scenarios here. A ’40s detective film in which the women are props designed to make the protagonist look good; and a contemporary action thriller in which women (and men, just to be fair) are programmable dream dates.

But The Big Sleep doesn’t bother me. Marlowe seems to actually respect the women. He treats them as equals even as he admires their physical traits. At a couple points in the film he relies on Vivian to help him out in physical confrontations with the bad guys. He values an intelligent woman as much as a lovely one. It’s pretty remarkable for a film of its time. They’re using sex to sell, sure, but they’re doing it in a classy way.

In Dollhouse, on the other hand, the dolls are mostly treated as pets, and there’s been little evidence that anyone in the Dollhouse ‘verse even cares. Ballard, the FBI agent trying to bust the Dollhouse, has become so obsessed that we’re not sure whether he’s doing it because of human rights issues or just to prove himself more stubborn than the next guy. And he’ll probably punch out the next guy anyway. Langton, Echo’s handler, was set up in the first episode as someone who could perhaps be the ethical voice, but he seems to have bought into the Dollhouse line pretty quickly.

I could be totally wrong. It’s a series, so the next couple of episodes may see a complete reversal of this. Someone will be revealed as the traitor and they’ll have some impassioned plea about equality and what not. But 10+ hours in is a little late for for me.

Edit: having read some of the other reactions and critiques of the show that are floating around, and the loads of discussion concerning Dollhouse, I will concede that the show is smarter than I was originally gleaning. I get it. But I’m still not entertained by it or care about anyone in the show. So it’s a wash for me.

Group reaction to Telepath’s Lament was positive. There are a few things I need to fix, but overall I think it’s a pretty solid, fun story. I should have it ready to market by the end of the month. First destination: Writer’s of the Future (I need to check the deadlines, but I believe I have plenty of time to make the current quarter). After it fails there I have some ideas for regular markets where I think it would fit well.

In the meantime, I have a flash piece to write for a new market. I’ve started but I’m not sure I like the beginning.

On the television front, I’m greatly saddened by all the rumors of cancellation swirling around Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s not a perfect show, but when it’s good it’s really good, and the season finale left us on a hell of a cliffhanger.

I think I’m done with Dollhouse. I suppose it has clawed its way from mediocre to, what would be above that, tolerable? But tolerable doesn’t make it worth my time. I find the premise boring and the characters to be uninteresting or poorly drawn. There have been some fun plot twists and a few cool scenes, but overall it has failed to engage me. And, seriously Joss, finding new excuses every week to have hot girls dressed in nothing doesn’t help the feminist cred.

Maybe if this week they kill off three quarters of the cast and shift the focus of the series I might stick around. But I imagine that won’t happen.

It’s odd. For the first time in a long time there won’t be any geeky television for me to watch. Battlestar is done. Terminator may not be back. Everything else is either terrible, didn’t catch my interest, or I missed out on the beginning. All I have is a sitcom or two and a cop show, and I’d probably be okay with losing those (except 30 Rock, that show is too good to end). Very odd situation to find myself in. There’s pretty much always been something on or something to look forward to.

Well, there is this. But I don’t want to get my hopes up too early.

Over breakfast this morning I was flipping through my trade of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s “All Star Superman” and I was struck again by what a fantastic book it is. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, I must insist you go out and buy it. Right now. It’s been fully collected in two hardcover volumes now (sadly, I haven’t gotten the second half yet, because DC’s trade program is terrible - but that’s a discussion for another time).

It’s everything a Superman story should be. There’s action, insanely jacked up science, humor, sweet romance, tragedy, and probably some other stuff I can’t think of. Quitely is at the top of his game here. I hear people say they can’t identify with Superman, or that he’s a “bad character” because he’s so powerful, but forget all that noise. Those people just haven’t read the right Superman story. Or, more likely, haven’t read any Superman stories at all.

The basic premise is that Lex Luthor (whose portrayal here as an arrogant genius who simply cannot stand the fact that someone like Superman exists, and a narcissist whose belief in his own superiority is his greatest weakness, is dead on) succeeds in, basically, giving Superman cancer. Suddenly faced with mortality, Supes has to decide what to do with the time remaining him.

There’s an issue about Pa Kent which, well, if you don’t tear up a little it proves only that you have a heart of stone and metal, driven by gears and pistons.

What “All Star Superman” does most of all is inject a sense of breathtaking wonder to the Superman world. It should be awesome to see Superman fly through the sun, or Lex Luthor pull off a trap from millions of miles away. These are amazing feats, and they should amaze us.

In the rush to be gritty and realistic, a lot of writers neglect that a wonderous story can be just as powerful.

This is a rant I’m hesitant to start, because I’ll just go on all day about it you let me. But the premier of “Southland” last night brings it to the forefront of my mind.

“Southland” is a cop show. It’s dark and gritty, set in Los Angeles, which as we know is a pretty brutal hotbed of violence. It was a solid premier. Nothing that really blew me away, but pretty good. I guess it’s from the producers of ER, but I didn’t get any of that same intesity that I remember from the first season or two of that show (say what you will about ER, and I only watched it during the first couple of seasons, but that was some gripping camerawork there). But the thing that really ripped me out of the illusion of the show was that they bleeped the swears.

Are they kidding me with this? Really NBC? Either grow a pair and give us perfectly justifiable swears or just tell your writers to write around it. All that beep does is annoy me.

Our culture’s obsession with this “bad word” nonsense is something that’s bothered me for years. Words only have power that you imbue them with. If you choose to be offended by them, that’s fine, but don’t limit someone else’s freedom of expression because of your arbitrary designation. Sure, they should be used sparingly and only to provide maximum impact, but I would give the same advice on any word. I get more offended when people repeatedly say “literally” than if they’re dropping a “fuck” every other sentence. If it’s character-appropriate, there’s no reason not to have them talk that way, and no reason to insult the audience’s intelligence with ridiculous censoring techniques that break the artistic integrity of the production.

And of course there’s the old violence vs sex vs profanity arguement. Showing a teenage kid gunned down in the street is okay but a boob or a stressed out cop saying “shit” is verboten. Guh. Get over it. There’s no such thing as a bad word.

Except “literally.”

[I should note the exception to this rant - the Season 3 X-Files episode, "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" - Detective Manners and his self-bleeping was genius. One of the greatest single episodes of television ever produced. But I digress.]

Telepath’s Lament, the first feature-length Chuck Chaykin story, is complete! Well, first draft complete. It clocks in at about 9,100 words. I’m pretty happy with it, but it has been sent out to the writing group for critique. I made some plotting choices that may prove controversial, but I deemed necessary to prevent the story from becoming gimmicky. We shall see!

Look in this space next week for a post about how I hate the story and it needs heavy revisions.

As I await judgement from my peers, I move along. I’ve been invited to submit to a new market, which is pretty exciting. This morning as I rose from the old coffin I came up with a fun idea for them. All I will say: pasty librarian + ancient undersea civilization.

Check out friend Stephanie’s new flash piece over at EDF. It is delightful! It’s even based on one of the prompts I provided a few months ago.

Update! It seems Steph isn’t the only one. Check out Virginia’s Six Sentence story here.