I would scream if I had the time

[jpskewedthrone]

Sorry I haven't been all that entertaining lately here on the ole LJ. It's the end of the semester and I'm currently hip deep in finals. In other words, I'm spending all of my time ruining students' lives grading students' papers. This will all be over in another week, at which I hope to be back to normal, with some time to spare. Or as normal as I ever get anyway.

In the meantime, squeezing in an hour here or there, I managed to finish off chapter 19 of the work in progress, aptly titled "Well of Sorrows". I'll post a word count meter at the end of the post, so you can see how out of control this sucker has gotten.

And in other news, an interview with me has been posted at R. Schuyler Devin's blog. I met Mr. Devin at Norwescon, where he asked if I'd be willing to participate in his 6-sided interview at his blog. Of course I said yes. So go check it out. You can mock all of my answers to the question about what books/movies/etc I feel are modern classics. (I hate those types of questions; you'll see why at the interview.) Since I suck at that type of question, I figured I'd throw it out to all of you: What books/movies/TV shows in the SF and Fantasy genre do you consider "modern classics"? And by modern, let's say that had to have been released or on TV within the last 10 years. I'd be interested in what everyone has to say (since we recently had the "must haves" of 80s moviedom discussion here). I'm sure I missed something important and completely obvious in my answer.

And now, here's the word meter for the current update on the writing project from hell. Hopefully, I'll be back to more regular posts in another week.

156,250 / 100,000 (156.2%)

Well of Sorrows

Comments

Classics!

[vespican.livejournal.com]

My vote for classic books of today would have to go to Naomi Novik's TEMERAIRE series. Why? Probably because my first love in reading is "Naval Adventure," stories such as the HORNBLOWER series by C. S. Forester, or the MASTER AND COMMANDER series by Patrick O'Brian. Ms. Novik convincingly combines (quasi) historical (sometimes Naval) Adventure with Fantasy. I also believe that her books come closest to what I'm trying to write myself. While I see hers as fantasy set against a semi-historical, naval adventure background, mine are Naval Adventure with certain elements of Fantasy or Science Fiction.

But don't worry, JP, I have your books on my list for the next run to the book store! Now that I've finished reading (and editing, and revising) my second book while at lunch at work, it's time to get back to reading other folks real published works.

I've watched various episodes of the new Battlestar Gallactica, and quite frankly I don't like it as well as the original. True, that was a bit campy. I would have hoped that a new series would have stayed a little truer to the original. The new version, in my opinion is too detailed, too deep, and too dark, for me. Special effects are a lot better, but there's more to a series than that. I suppose that's why I believe the original Star Trek to be the best of them all. With the limited budgets they were produced on, the story and the acting had to prevail. Sometimes watching the original series is like watching a filmed stage play. As an audience we have to use our imagination a lot more. That helps draw us into the story.

Dave

Re: Classics!

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions! I've read the Temeraire series (the first three anyway) and I don't know if I'd rate them as classics. Although I'm not exactly biased, since Naomi Novik beat me out of the Compton Crook award for best first novel that year. I may be holding a grudge. (According to the judges, she didn't beat me by much though.)

In any case, if you read my books, let me know what you think! And let others know too of course. *grin*

Re: Classics!

[vespican.livejournal.com]

My B'day and Father's Day are coming up. Perhaps I should hint that I'd like one or two of your books as gift(s). I'm sure my wife and or daughter would oblige. (It seems we all have such a hard time choosing gifts for each other, that any suggestions are usually welcome.)
And given a chance to read one or more of yours, I'll let you know what I think.
Lastly, because I've not yet read any of yours, I cannot rate them versus Naomi Novik's works. To me, the real catch of her stories is the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire.
Dave