Author Archive

Yep, right about the time I’m finally getting out of debt, I’ve decided to return to school and complete my degree. I’ve decided that I’m not going to continue with my computer science degree, but instead get a creative writing degree. My goal is to get an MFA. I’m honestly not certain this will help with my writing necessarily. I do believe it will help with my personal growth. It feels like an empty spot in my life, like something I started but never finished. I’ve decided to pursue a degree with a traditional university that offers online classes. My criteria required the focus of study be on creative writing–not technical or business related writing. I’ve had years of corporate culture. I don’t need to learn any more about it than I all ready know. I’ll likely attend Southern New Hampshire University, specifically because they have a low residency MFA and the residencies are in a beautiful part of the country. So there’s that. I’m sending in all my paperwork this weekend. I’ll just have to see where this little journey takes me. Hopefully, somewhere fulfilling.

It appears you can read issue #19 for free. This is an excellent chance to get a taste for the type of fiction M-BRANE SF publishes. I’m excited to be in this issue with so many other talented writers.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

Shawn Scarber: “Burnt Benediction”
Bart Leib: “Flip the Switch”
Ian Sales: “Through the Eye of a Needle”
Jacques Barbéri (tr. Michael Shreve): “Isanve”
Jason S. Ridler: “4×40 Killers”
Regan Wolfrom: “A Step Beyond the Rain”

Signed the contract tonight, so I’m happy to officially announce that my weird science fiction short story “Burnt Benediction” will appear in the August edition of M-Brane SF. I feel this story has found an exceptionally fitting home with M-Brane SF and encourage everyone to subscribe and give the magazine a read.

Here’s a small sampling from “Burnt Benediction”:

Fr. Marcias lifted his shotgun and pumped it. A pumped shotgun had a nice beat to it. A song of violence was a tune that Fr. Marcias liked rather well.

He charged down the hall where the boy’s gaze had lingered. After a few steps, he jumped and kicked the old wooden door, riding it to the ground he then went down on one knee with the shotgun to his shoulder. He would have just started blasting, but a familiar smell hit his nostrils; the smell of late nights covered in a thin layer of sweat.

When the dust cleared, the only person in the room was a woman who sat cross-legged on the edge of an oak desk. The furniture looked as though it had been built for the same time period as the building, but the woman looked like something out of a movie from the nineteen forties with a tight skirt, frilly blouse, and high heels. Fr. Marcias regretted the moment he recognized her. It wouldn’t have mattered how she disguised herself, either. He would have still known her.

“Darling,” she said. “When I heard Papa was sending one of his bad boys out this way, I so hoped it was you. It’s so good to see you again, and again, and again.”

A listing of available James P. Hogan books.

Not a heck of a lot to report right now. I have three stories out right now looking for publication; one sort of dark post-apocalyptic science fiction, another very short horror story, and another very short Gothic fantasy. I really haven’t been writing a lot lately. July is always a slow month for me anyway, because I typically keep my daughter for that month, and we’re normally doing stuff.

I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately. Generally, I’m not that big on television shows. I’d really rather write than watch TV, but there’s something about the world and characters of Doctor Who that’s kind of captured my fascination. So I’m watching all the new episodes and a few of the older ones. I did watch a few of these when I was a kid, but I don’t have the sort of diehard fan commitment that a lot of sci-fi folks seem to have toward the good Doctor.

I saw Avatar: The Last Airbender with the kiddo the other night. It’s terrible. I just don’t see how someone could screw up the movie that bad. I mean, did he even watch the cartoon? Why didn’t he just hire the original writers to work on the script? I believe this is what working in a vacuum can do to your creativity.

I am stocked about seeing Inception though. It looks fantastic. Very exciting stuff.

So I am working on cleaning up a few of my older works to get them out there door. It’s a little slow going, but I’m ok with that. I have another old novel I was working on about seven years ago that I’ve pulled out of the folder and started rethinking. I think I can start committing more time to my writing after July. So hopefully you’ll see more work come out of me.

Publications however, are beyond my control. I’m doing my best to get more work polished and out the door, but there’s not much I can do about not getting acceptances, accept try to write better.

I’ve been in my new apartment now for almost two months. It’s wonderful having my own place. Solitude, to a certain extent, is an absolute necessity for me. My daughter now has her own room and it does seem we have more time together than we’ve had in the past, and she has more room for all her stuff.

I’ve had more time for reading and writing lately, but most of that focus has been on reading. I’ve returned to some earlier science fiction in an attempt to better understand the overall conversation. I’m mostly reading works that came out during the ‘New Wave’ movement in speculative fiction. It’s been an interesting education.

I’ve been working on revisions for some of my older works. Hopefully, I’ll have a few of those completed and ready to send around to publishers soon. This time last year I was doing a much better job of completing works and sending them out, I plan to step that up and get back to work.

One thing I have managed to really stick to has been my healthier diet and exercise routine. I’m running daily and eating healthier than ever. Most of my diet consists of raw fruit. I’ve stopped drinking everything but water. That’s right, I quit drinking beer. I might have an occasional beer for very special occasions, but it will be rare.
This healthy lifestyle has had some physical benefits. I’ve lost a little weight and feel much better.

Additionally, to all this good health and new dedication to writing and reading, I’m changing jobs. This is my final week at 1000 N. Main Street. I’ve enjoyed everyone I’ve worked with there, but it’s time for me to move on to greener fields.

So that’s the update. Not a lot to report. See you in another three months.

I’m moving back to North Arlington at the first of April. That’s right, I’ll be right down the street from the Cowboy’s Stadium and just a few minutes away from my kiddo. Other personal things of note: I’ve been following a high raw diet and losing a few pounds and feeling great. Additionally, I’ve started the couch to 5k in an attempt to get myself back to regularly running.

Writing-wise, I’m still reading a lot, but mostly short stories now. I think I’ve learned enough about screenwriting now to know I pretty much need to be in Hollywood to make a successful go at it. I know there are plenty of people who write from Ohio and other non-LA places, but it’s something I’d rather do correctly. I’ll keep reading scripts and studying good movies, but won’t go for being an actual screenwriter until I’m free to move to Cali.

So that means I’m back to writing short stories. I’m actually excited about this. I think studying the structure of screenplays has taught me how to recognize structure. I can now actually analyze other short stories and see their structure. It’s typically much simpler in short stories.

My next post will likely come in April with notes on my progress. I’ll also get back to submitting my work to short story markets.

Daybreakers: What went wrong?

Last night some friends and I went to see the new movie Daybreakers. Honestly, I’m a little sick of vampires, but I wanted to see what they did with it.

Daybreakers is the vision of the Spierig brothers. With the 1940s style costuming and vampire friendly environment you feel like you’re seeing something close to our world, but just a little different. I thought this was nicely done, even though in a few places it felt more like I was watching a music video than a film.

Honestly, this story almost made it for me. I think it’s greatest weakness was its hero. The main character fails to grab your interest, because even though he has an overriding concern, he never goes through any great transformation. He makes a physical transformation, but not a psychological or moral one, which leaves the audience with the feeling of, ‘What’s the point?’

He’s a victim hero and those guys are never any fun unless they’re out for hardcore, car-exploding, mob-bosses-dying-in-terrible-ways revenge. Our hero has no need to change, because he’s there to do exactly what the writer wanted him to do–show off the neat vampire world. Had more work been done to create a satisfying hero arch, you would have seen a completely different movie. A much better movie.

It’s good eye-candy though and there are a few cheesy lines that got a good laugh, but overall it falls short of being a satisfying film experience.

The Answer Man written and directed by John Hindman

Just some quick thoughts on ‘Answer Man’.

My take on the theme: If you want answers, you better be honest with yourself first.

A lot of this story is about the relationships of sons to their fathers. The sub plot with the alcoholic bookstore owner revolves around his issues with his alcoholic father. Arlan, the main character, is not dealing with his father’s death. Alex, the son of Arlan’s love interest is not dealing well with his father’s disappearance.

So we have feelings of anger and resentment toward the father, feelings of loss, and feelings of uncertainty. So growth comes from resolution with the father.

Atonement with the father is one of the steps in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, or what I sometimes reference as the Monomyth.

This film is a good example of how a section of the Monomyth can serve as a story’s theme or centerpiece.

The following is a pretty good definition from Wikipedia:

“In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or something with incredible power”

Two of the fathers in this story are absent, but we do see one of these figures. They hardly seem like god-like, powerful beings, but this is one of the things I often like to point out about character: to the men and boy in this story, the fathers are just that. They are powerful.

Alren Faber’s dead father has the power to keep Arlen from “life”. He holds the power of life and death in his hands. Even though this is a father who is off screen we get a sense that this man was a huge influence in Arlen’s life. Enough that Arlen feels the need to preserve so much of his father’s memories [which is something the father in the story was losing to Alzheimer’s]. So here we see the Mythopotic power of a father who can put life on hold. When this story begins, this is how we find Arlen–attempting to connect with God [another father figure], but bitter at life for interrupting.

Kris’s father has gifted his son with a type of enslavement: alcoholism. This is a much more reflective relationship, in that the same issues the father faces the son faces. This comes out clearly in Kris’s questions to Arlen–is there such a thing as free will or are we predestined? In other words, “Am I destined the follow my father’s path? Is there no other way out? Or is this my life? Can I make my own choices and find my own rewards?” Kris’s issues with his father are the centerpoint of his journey. Unlike Alex or Arlen, Kris is dealing with his issues in the moment, and in a strange way looks to Arlen as an almost father figure. However, he finds disappointment in both fathers, until Arlen redeams himself in the end by doing a huge book signing at Kris’s store and probably saving Kris’s business.

Alex doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but his father is probably one of the most powerful. Alex’s father has managed to freeze time. Alex struggles to understand simple things like days of the week and months, because he’s not been told the truth about his absent father.

One could complain that a lot of these transformational threads aren’t resolved and could claim that they should have been in the film. However, Alex and Kris serve as support characters who do an accurate job of reflecting Arlen’s problems. Generally, in this type of story, it’s assumed that if the main character has resolved his issues, that the others will be resolved as well. Technically, not every character in the story needs a complete resolution. It’s perfectly acceptable that a reflection character continue to have their own problems, as long as they’ve helped the character going through the transformational arch actually transform.

Oh, and overall I really enjoyed this movie. I’d love to get a copy of the screenplay, but haven’t found it yet.

OK, so technically, it’s probably not considered a Christmas movie, but I put it in my catalog of fun things to watch around Christmas time.

Here’s the original trailer:

Here’s some making of clips about the film’s birth:

Part 2

An excellent interview with the screenwriter Caroline Thompson:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/olague_robert/caroline_thompson.php

I couldn’t find the original script, but I did find a transcript. It at least gives you a flavor of the wonderful dialogue and character development Caroline put into the work.

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Edward-Scissorhands.html

I’ve noticed that most of my favorite films tend to have a speculative element. Edward Scissorhands is a kind of suburban fairytale and fantasy. I’m not sure if it’s a good one to use as a commercial model though, because honestly I don’t think something like this would have made it through the studio system at the time. Something like it might today though.

Edward is on my ‘watch 5 times’ list. I think it takes watching something about 5 times to truly grok its structure.