Filling the Well

I put Kitty and the Silver Bullet through “the page 99 test.” See the results here.

Quite the exciting weekend, I must say. Yesterday I went to the Colorado Renaissance Festival, an event near and dear to my heart. I worked at a food booth there for two and a half summers during college. I’d spend all day behind a counter hawking in a bad English accent (until I came back from living in England, after which I couldn’t do an English accent at all) and come home smelling like grease and cleaning dirt out of my nose. (see faire boogers.) And I loved it. I loved just being at the festival, hearing the music, eating the food, gawking at the wares, meeting the people. I worked right across from one of the stages and learned all the songs (I was at a pub in Dublin and when the band played “Whiskey in the Jar” I started singing along, and the other Americans I was with were like, “How the hell do you know this?”), Ded Bob’s entire act, and could see the royal procession pass. The Festival is all the best parts of pretending to be in a pseudo-historical fantasy world.

I still love it. Only now instead of working I run around and spend money. This year, I listened to more musical acts and even picked up a few CDs, which I’ve never done before. But the music was very good. A drum and bagpipe group called Celtic Legacy did a danceable version of “Amazing Grace” that seriously kicked ass.

It’s fun seeing what’s changed in the 15 years since I worked there. One big thing: “Pirates of the Caribbean” has changed the Festival forever. There’s even a guy dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow running around, singing “A Pirate’s Life For Me” at the pirate tavern. Beowulf clothing used to have basic pants, shirts and vests (basic guy Ren Faire outfit) hanging on display out front, with fancier doublets and such tucked away inside. Now, it’s all frock coats and poet shirts out front. And then at another booth, shaped like a pirate ship, I saw this:

Can someone tell me the difference between real pirate costumes and fake pirate costumes?

There’s a level at which this can be seen as Pixar’s first horror film… Because boy, some of those images — scary!

I just told my mom that this film was made for people who love science fiction and musicals. Which makes me the target audience. I for one thought it was awfully good.

A couple of rather long posts on the business side of writing that it wouldn’t have occurred to me to write, so I share them with you.

Jeaniene Frost on how much money writers make.

Justine Musk on hustling for the next check. Well, that’s not quite how she puts it. Her post is about writing a series, writing mass markets where you really only get one chance to make a splash, the nuts and bolts of the business where you’re only as good as your last set of numbers.

These experiences line up with mine pretty well. I’ve been writing full time for just over a year, since my third book came out and the first two started earning royalties.

Today is the official release date for this:

Anthology called Hotter Than Hell, edited by Kim Harrison. My story is called “Life is the Teacher.” I hope you’ll think of giving it a try.

Just found out that George Carlin has died. Now, I’ve never been a particular fan of Carlin. But this has affected me, and I think I just figured something out. I may not have been a fan, but he was ever-present. My whole life, he’s been here, being funny. And here’s the thing: the people (entertainers, politicians, etc.) who were at their primes in the 70s and 80s, during my childhood — the people I grew up with, who define my culture — are leaving us in droves now.

It is making me sad.

I almost didn’t go see this because I’d gotten so damned sick of the advertising bombardment. I’ve seen an ad for this before every movie I’ve been to for the last two months. Enough already!

But I’m glad I did, and here’s why: moments of knife-twisty political satire, apparently so subtle they seem to have completely slipped under most reviewers’ radars, because I can’t seem to find anyone talking about it. There’s even a millisecond nod to “Dr. Strangelove.” Yeah, I’ll agree, the movie isn’t the most brilliant comedy to come along. But I laughed, and I’ve been waiting 6 years for a mainstream film to make the kinds of digs this one did. “It’s nuclear! Nu-cle-ar!”

…people tell me I’d enjoy a particular movie “If you’d just turn your brain off.”

My response is always:  “I shouldn’t have to!”

Also, when they say about a movie with a high FX quotient and not much else, “At least it’s pretty.”

Because that’s going to end up being the epitaph of good Hollywood film making.

The Sci Fi Channel Saturday night monster movie has become an institution. They’ve picked up the tradition of movie house creature features and run with it. They’re formulaic, they’re silly, they’re bad. But there’s just something about them. Something alluring.

Behold: Warbirds! The tagline: “Before the Allies could drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, they had to get it past the Japanese fleet…and its island of deadly pterodactyls.”

BWAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! This is so awesome. This is better than awesome. This is like that crazy role playing game where the GM started us out in Shadowrun then shoved us through a dimensional door into Space 1889. The last Sci Fi Channel movie I was intrigued enough to actually watch: SS Doomtrooper. Because wow.

But I really wanted to see “Warbirds” because the main characters are all WASP — Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II. Stories about these women are few and far between, but they’re kinda my heroes. I even wrote a story featuring them myself. I felt obliged to give this flick a look.

For all its flaws, someone on the film did some research. The main character had a Fifinella (the WASP mascot designed by Walt Disney) patch on her flight jacket. That was cool. Also, Japanese Zeros battling giant dragons? Very very cool.

The whole making sense thing? Not so much. This aired a couple months ago now, but Sci Fi reruns these things all the time. I recommend watching with popcorn and a big bottle of merlot in hand.

So, what’s your favorite bad monster movie? Sci Fi Channel or otherwise.

I just got a big box of books: the British editions of the first three Kitty novels! Yay!

So if you’re in Great Britain, here’s what the Kitty books look like: