More Than Once Upon a Time

My neighborhood gets artier every day.

http://improveverywhere.com/2009/09/27/thank-you-invisible-dogs/

I’ve been recharging my hindbrain’s battery by working on a couple of short stories the last couple of months. I wrote a draft of the first one about a year ago, but put it aside because I was still in the middle of Avender in America. I knew the story was going to be tough, too, as it as a tone and mood very different from anything else I’ve done. But, after a month’s work and a fairly polished draft, it still isn’t what I’d hoped, so I’ve shelved it for the time being.

The second story was more of a problem - this is the third time I’ve tackled it. Nolo and Ferris fighting pirates in the Pearl Islands - it started out as a chapter in Reiffen’s Choice, but then was cut because it had nothing to do with the novel. Another version tried to sneak its way into AinA, but I axed that as well. So I know the story cold - banged it out in couple of days. But then I encountered a problem. There’s no ending. The best scene is in the middle, and after that eevrything’s an anticlimax. Not sure how to fix it but, after two months, I think it’s time to move on to the next novel.

Nothing to do with the Stoneways this time. It’s SF.

Or sweet rolls, as we call them in my family. In the oven, baking right now.

In the end, that’s what The Magicians is really about. Nasty, sulky, selfish Edmund wandering around being envious of everyone else for the entire book, with no reformation. And then he gets to be King anyway.

The NY Times reviewer who panned this book may have been completely wrong in what he said about fantasy in general, but he’s completely right in what he said specifically about this book.

One hundred fifty pages in the book is now The Hogwarts Hipsters.

Because when I walked into the court room for jury duty today there was a quote from Samuel Butler carved into the wall in foot high letters above the judge’s podium.

I’ve only read a couple of chapters, but my natural bias has already kicked in. So far I’d say Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is Holden Caulfield Goes to Hogwarts. Which might work for some people, but doesn’t for work for me.

Okay, I see the jokes coming already, but really, there’s no crack you can make that isn’t already in the movie.

Does anyone remember this one? From 1999, Dick stars Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as a pair of 15 year old girls who get to walk President Nixon’s dog. Basically, it’s Jan and Marcia Brady as Deep Throat. Really. A wonderful movie, I saw it in theaters when my two oldest daughters were 14 and 16. They loved it; I loved it; and I loved it tonight when I just watched it again for the first time. Dan Hedaya is the best Nixon - ever. I mean, this movie is so much better than Frost and Nixon on so many levels. Nixon was never tragedy - he was only farce.

Favorite line - Nixon, after the girls see a room full of staffers manning the shredders: “My hobby is papier mache.”

Why is this movie not a huge cult hit?

We Are the Orcs! - My Latest Post is up at SFNovelists.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/no-republicans-for-healthcare-reform.html