Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Work & Play
Nunzio and I just finished a first draft of our film script Paradise Springs. It really is like giving birth to a baby. Okay, having never been pregnant I can't really make that statement. But there's such a high that comes with something like that.
2008 has been a weird year. It was supposed to be an amazing year. We had sold a TV movie, the strike ended, we had a film script to work on and then life kinda went on hold. As many have heard, I had surgery back in February. Sure it was going to disrupt life a bit, but not for long, right?
Well, it was for long. And that TV movie? That's on hold until the network decides what their future holds. And Paradise Springs... well we were trying to write it, but every time we went forward, it didn't click for us, and progress was hard to come by. And before we knew it, it was summer and the year was almost half over.
At the beginning of June, we sat up and took stock. We knew we were going out of town at the end of the month and we knew we had a truckload to get done before then. So we started going to the gym again regularly and we hunkered down with Paradise Springs, finding some solutions and pushing past our initial stumbling blocks. Meanwhile, we got the Metromix opportunity and raced to get a story and pages approved as quickly as possible. As we said before, first pages come out July 23rd!
Then somewhere in the writing of Paradise Springs, we discovered plot problems and circularity and things we just hadn't forseen in the plotting. So somewhere around Page 112, Nunzio says to me "we need to take an axe to this script and gut the second act." My eyes went wide... The panic grew in my stomach. "But, but... we have to turn it in in a week, " I sputtered. But my husband, the master plotter, started chopping away and damn if he wasn't right. Before I knew it we were back on track. And today... first draft!
[Of course now, we take the obligatory few days off, and then we read it to see if it makes any sense. Or sucks.]
Meanwhile, an editor at Marvel approached us about pitching an Aunt May story for Spiderman. Our agent called today about doing a possible manga based on a videogame. And we're getting ready to start work on the first issue of Bad Medicine.
I am so excited about heading to Oregon this Friday. Every year we rent a house on the Oregon coast with our friends and their kids for 4th of July. I love kicking back and relaxing. But I realize now relaxing is never as much fun as when you've just finished doing good hard work.
I look forward to the vacation. And I look forward to getting back to work on the many projects we seem to have floating in the air.
2008 may be a good year yet.
Friday, June 13, 2008
A Unique Opportunity
Nunzio and I had a meeting with MetroMix today. For those of you who don't know what that is (and I confess that I didn't know either until recently), it's a weekly L.A. newspaper (linked to a website) that publishes reviews of local bars and restaurants. They also review movies, TV shows, music. Anything and everything pop culture that's going on in Los Angeles. They had contacted Jason DeAngelis at Seven Seas about doing a one page manga each week towards the back of the issue. And Jason contacted us about writing said manga.
This poses an interesting challenge for us. MetroMix wants a manga that will appeal to the twenty-something Los Angeles crowd. Jason wants something that appeals to the manga audience and can eventually be collected and published as a graphic novel as well as have legs as a potential movie idea. Therefore, we need to script something that stands on its own as a one page story, but fits into a larger whole.
Needless to say, we jumped at the challenge.
And after talking to MetroMix today, we discovered two exciting things. One, they're planning to launch the manga in the issue that comes out the week of the San Diego Comic-Con with a three page spread as well as making it their cover story. This is great timing and gives us something we can show at the convention.
Additionally, they told us the plan would be to collect and bind the pages every twelve or twenty-four "issues." This would then be inserted into the L.A. Times which would be amazing exposure.
Anyway, I don't want to give anything away story-wise yet. We're still hammering out the details. But if all goes according to plan, the first three pages will debut July 23rd. So for all of you in Los Angeles, pick up MetroMix (available in those street side dispensers - the same type of dispenser where you get your newspaper or L.A. Weekly).
And for those of you not in Los Angeles, the pages will be published one week after they're in the paper on MetroMix's website - www.metromix.com.
Stay tuned for more information!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Home Again
So this was the weekend I got to go home - possibly for the last time.
The trick is - Naugatuck Valley is in Connecticut.
Aside from the logistical questions of family visits - Christina's family is in Boston, mine was in New York, and now mine will be split between NY and Connecticut - it also means that my parents will likely sell the house.
I grew up in this house and most of my memories are here - heck, we even buried 2 dogs in the backyard. But soon, they'll sell it, and the house will be someone else's - or more likely, torn down so someone can build a 2-3 family house.
But, then again, I haven't lived here in forever. It's not my home, and hasn't been for over a decade. It's always nice to visit and stay with my parents, but it doesn't feel like home. I slept in the basement while here, and while it is comfortable - it makes it clear I am a guest.
The things we hang onto from our youth are never quite the same when we revisit them in adulthood.
And yet, we are loathe to let them go.
So, while home (I swear this is connected in my head), my family and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
I'd read mixed reviews of it - more positive than negative, but many of them laced with a jaded 'it's not quite the same, but it tries' attitude.
I went into it hoping it would be like coming home, but wary that it could never be quite the same.
George Lucas' weird assertions that no-one would like the movie, because it could never match the fan's anticipated version made me worry as well.
On some level, maybe he was onto something. Were the things I hated about the Star Wars prequels (though, truth be told, I only disliked the first one - I felt the prequels got better in sequence) things I tolerated in the originals? Clunky dialogue, too much showy stuff and not enough emotion, that sort of thing?
Or was he offbase, and just took the wrong message from the fan drubbing of his prequels?
Did we dislike them because they could never be all that we'd imagined? Or because they were bad?
And what about Indy? Would I hate in it things I tolerated or even admired in the originals?
Well, I saw it tonight.
And it was great.
Lucas is wrong. Because it wasn't the movie I wrote in my head (don't ask), yet I enjoyed it immensely.
It isn't perfect - the ending is weaker than the rest, and some of the Area 51 stuff pans out in the end to be a bit broad for my tastes, and one character has one switch of allegiance too many.
But it is a blast.
I recommend it.
Shut off the jadedness that comes with age. Just sit back and enjoy it the way you did the originals. I think you'll feel like you came home.
And when you can come home, enjoy it. Because it won't always be there.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
And now for something completely different...
I was genuinely torn about posting today, because so much of my last day has been spent thinking about Ted Kennedy - the news has affected me way more than I'd anticipated. And my previous post, which was on the subject, isn't even 24 hours old.
However, there's news, so I wanted to post that...
We talk about writing together, our TV days, our thoughts on current comics... about anything and everything. And at the end of the interview we talk for a bit about our upcoming books, ALL SAINTS DAY and BAD MEDICINE as well as our upcoming BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL arc (the one with King Tut), so we're excited we got a chance to talk about those.
It's about an hour long, because we love to talk (especially me). But we had a blast with Scott and our good friend David, who made this happen.
And since I've broken the somber mood, I figure I should also post my thoughts on last night's coronation... er, I mean, competition... on American Idol.
I was frustrated by the show last night, for several reasons. The first is that my guy David Cook didn't slam dunk this thing. But the second is the obvious pimpage going on with David Archuleta.
Round 1 - This is where I was a little let down by David C. His "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was very good, but it wasn't earth-shaking, and I was expecting it to be a crowning moment. That opened the door for David A., whose rendition of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" was one of his better performances all year. Still, he insisted on singing it straight but then adding weird runs to show off his voice, so it felt a little off, too.
I thought the First Round was a tie and I was sad that Cook didn't win that one, not even in my eyes.
Round 2 - Can we just put the songwriting contest to rest already? 2 Seasons now and 3 songs into it, and there hasn't been a really good song yet.
Cook's song was not very good, but he sang it pretty well.
Archuleta's song was awful, and syrupy and when I try to even remember it, I wind up hearing him sing "This Is My Now" (last year's 'winning' song) in my head - they're practically the same song, only this one had the obnoxious lyric that Sir Andrew mocked not-so-gently.
Ugh. Two bad songs. Both sung reasonably well. But I give the edge to David C, simply because his song didn't suck as much (the chorus was catchy, at least) and he sang it well.
Round 3 - This is where I realized that this show is never going to be, for me, what it should be.
All season long, they applaud David C for taking risks, doing new things.
So for his choice, he picks a song he hasn't sung before ("The World I Know") and he sings the hell out of it. This was his moment, and I thought he nailed it.
And Archuleta does the safe thing, retreats to his best performance of the year. And they're not even singing full versions (despite having an hour for 6 songs - any idea why we still got condensed versions of songs), so there's nothing new there. The best he can do is replicate how glorious the song was the first time, and the worst he can do is fail to recapture the glory. David A's performance falls somewhere in the middle - he warbles once or twice, which he didn't do the first time, but for the most part the song hits most of the same highs as before.
(And once again, he skips the line about "Imagine there's no heaven" - talk about playing it safe!)
So one contestant, who's been praised for being original and new, does a new song exceptionally well. The other, who has sounded the same all season, sings a song he's sung before, exactly the same way (and in my mind, not even as well)...
and who do they praise?
And worse, Simon (David C's biggest fan) goes after him for not singing one of the songs he sang before.
I call bullshit.
Round 3 went to David C, first of all on performance, but second of all, because his fans got something new, while David A's got something they've already heard.
So I saw a show with 1 tie, and 2 rounds to Cook.
The judges saw a "knockout" by Archuleta.
Ugh.
By the way, I challenge anyone to watch the end of the show again where they give the numbers for calling in over a montage of each contestant's three songs. Watch it again and tell me that David Archuleta didn't effectively make two classic songs and one crappy composition sound all like one, long, bland song. You could barely tell where one ended and another began. Now imagine an entire album by this kid. Great voice, but I wouldn't buy it.
Anyway, those are my thoughts, and above is our news.
Like I said, I didn't want to shove Ted Kennedy off the top of our blog. So if you're gonna post here about AI (or the interview), please first go one post down and post some thoughts of support for a great man who is now fighting for his life.
Thanks.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
My hero's hero...
...has a brain tumor.
I'm traveling today, headed east for the first time in 2008, since Christina's incision is close enough to healed that traveling is no longer a problem.
I travel via Jet Blue, they of the free DirectTV.
Every time we travel on Jet Blue, there's some big event that gets the 24 hour news coverage. I find myself sucked in, but ultimately annoyed by the way they hover around a story, saying the same 3 things over and over and pretend it's news.
But this time, I was heartbroken.
Ted Kennedy is one of the greats. He had a role in the Voting Rights Acts, for God's sake. He has been fighting for the things I believe in since well before I was even born.
And Ted Kennedy is my father's idol. The man he admires more than any other man in America.
I get my ideals and politics from my parents - both are liberal. I remember vividly the image of my mom crying in 1980 when Reagan beat Carter. I was 10 years old, and that helps shape a person.
My Dad and I don't always agree - all three of his kids landed further to the left than even he is, and age has mellowed his liberal fire a tiny bit (though not much, I assure you). But if there's something he values, it's a man who fights the important fights - the ones worth fighting.
Ted Kennedy - to him, and to me - is that man.
I watched the news today and my heart broke a little. In part because it's such a hard fight ahead for a man who has fought so hard for so long.
But in part because I knew how hard my father would take the news.
I'm not a praying sort. Never have been.
But Ted Kennedy is in my thoughts. And I try to retain hope that the man who has overcome so much - and helped so many others overcome so many injustices - wins this latest battle.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Verbosity leads to unclear inarticulate things
One of the many joys of being a writer is the ability to play with words.
There are a handful of words that I love. Some are words that sound exactly like what they mean. Some simply don't get used enough and deserve a little recognition.
Today I share with you some of my favorite words.
kerfuffle
saunter
jalopy
unctuous
jaunty
impresario
ramshackle
ennui
cross (the adjective, not the noun or verb)
svelte
huck (though I may have made this one up. I can't find it in a dictionary.)
verbiage
scuffle
languish
saucy
wallop
chuffle (notice my love of words that end in -uffle?)
persnickety
bloviate
palaver
donnybrook (does anyone know where this term originates from? Bonus points if you do.)
Then there is a subset of words that I love. We're too unimaginative these days with the use of words like 'ho or slut or whore.
So I give you my favorite "ho" words.
trollop
hussy
lothario
tart
I'm sure more will come to me. They always do.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Kick, Punch, it's all in the mind...
I wish to dispel the notion that all I ever talk about is American Idol. So today I will discuss everyone's favorite subject...
Ninjas.
Okay, maybe it's just me. And maybe it's just the fact that Nunzio and I just finished working on a chapter of Amazing Agent Luna, Volume 5. But ninjas are cool.
And I think for as long as I live, there will never be another writing project that has been as easy and as fun to write as Luna. I fully expect to enjoy many more projects that I work on. But Luna holds a special place in my heart. It's a project that no matter how cranky I am, or unfocused I am, or whatever... by the time I've written some pages and I step away from the computer, my heart feels lighter and writing is the coolest thing in the world.
So in answer to the eternal question, Ninjas or Pirates? I will always answer ninjas. As a side note, this is a painful question for Nunzio because anyone who knows him, knows his love of pirates. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE working on our book Destiny's Hand. It's just not Luna.
And for anyone else out there who also loves ninjas, I make this recommendation to you.
This is an extremely cool TV show worth checking out. And
this guy is probably the coolest ninja around.
Also,
this shows him being the cool ninja that he is.
And now, lest I disappoint expectations, I'm off to watch American Idol.
Feel free to post all your favorite ninja stories.
