Ghost in the Shell

I have now been to see Ghost in the Shell at the cinema, which is a thing for us as we so very rarely go to the cinema nowadays because it's too expensive, and full of people being loud, possibly as we were once from just being young and exuberant.

I shall start by saying the critics are wrong.

This film, while not a classic in the same way as The Matrix or Blade Runner were when they were first released, is despite that a solid piece of entertainment.  Probably the best live action cyberpunk outside of The Matrix and Blade Runner.

It tells a slightly different version of the Major's origin story, and for that matter Section 9 too, but this is no way detracts from the film.  If anything it's the best bits version of the various iterations of the Ghost in the Shell stories, as told over the years through the various mediums of manga and anime.  Scarlet Johansson is perfectly cast as the Major, and Pilou Asbæk nails Batou.

If you want a big screen treat go see it.

The Expanse

We've managed to watch season one of The Expanse, and enjoyed it very much.  Certain caveats: it starts slow with the TV equivalent of an info dump/world-building that shakes itself out by the end of the second episode.  After that it's pretty much high-octane story telling.  The news is that it has been renewed for season three, but that numbers the viewing numbers are not what the network hoped for.  Knowing my luck it will be cancelled, but you never know.

If you haven't checked it out I suggest you do.  It has certainly piqued my interest in writing a novel set in our solar system: I fancy doing a pretty hard SF take, which is problematical because it will affect what stories can be told and how one tells them.

Still, what's life without a challenge.  I may be some time.

Grave: Book 3 of The Queen of the Dead

Reading wise I finished the third book in the Queen of the Dead trilogy by Michelle Sagara called Grave.  I raved about the first book, called Silence, here.  I wrote about the second volume, called Touch, here.  Now I've finished the third book and have mixed feelings.  I struggled to read the book because it felt over long and drawn out, but the climax was heart rending, as in it made me cry for the characters.  If only I could write that well.

What I would observe is that book one was a tightly written novel of 289 pages, book two was 325 pages and the third volume was 450 pages.  Assuming a page is 350 words that's 101,150 words for the first book, rising to 113,750 in the second, and 157,500 words.

What I take away from this is two things.  Longer isn't better.  Trying to fill in all the characters back stories takes away from the plot's momentum.

But, I should add the caveat that I'm less inclined towards reading long books, which is why I won't be buying the novels The Expanse is based on if the show is cancelled, for pretty much the same reason I stopped reading George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones series after the first volume.  This probably marks me as out of touch with the current fashion, but it's not long novels per se, just series that are made of very long novels that drain my will to read.

NB: Struggled to read is probably too strong a description of my feelings when reading this book. The book left me satisfied, and in awe of Michelle Sagara's writing ability.

April Progress

Me shooting at the itty-bitty target in the distance.

As I have mentioned before real life demands, as in my day job, have slowed my writing to a crawl.  I've been taking some time away from writing and reading and doing other things, but as people who follow my model-making and gaming blog know I've been writing up my hobby activity, and for those who follow me on FaceBook my archery.

It seems that the urge to write hasn't gone away, and if anything the urge to write more novels remains.

However, being the victim of my own success I've found myself increasing my day job from two to three days, which doesn't sound like much, but it is.  My job is quite demanding and leaves me drained, not helped by my rheumatoid arthritis.  My consultant may cheerfully write that I'm in remission, but remission is not the same thing as cured.

So my plan is to do less frequent updates here and on my other blog too I suspect.  Hopefully, I can maximize what spare time I have to working on my novels.

Talking of which, I managed to surprise myself by editing more words than I thought I would on Strike Dog.  More importantly I began rewriting a chapter from a different character's point of view that I really, really wasn't looking forward to doing, because it felt like drudge work.  Not only that but, I had some ideas come together for my third novel Ghost Dog and I'm currently working on two new point of views to weave into the plot.  One I had planned, as in my Alpha reader pointed out I'd left a plot strand hanging, and the other is different idea bouncing off the first.

So that's all for this post.

The March of Time

Cue the music for the news and ask where has all the time gone?

Well, I can at least point you all to this months Galactic Journey piece I did on the 1962 British Eastercon.  When writing this I found it remarkable that a lot of the things that are going on in SF fandom now are very similar to what was going in in SF fandom then.  Especially, in my case, watching parts of fandom splitting apart over what I would observe as things that are not controllable.

Hence my link to The March of Time video, things may look old fashioned in the film newsreel, but it's the same stuff we are still doing today–living our lives as best we can in a world we can't control.

I've been taking some time out to do hobby stuff, which can be seen over on my other blog where I keep all the stuff about my addiction to toy soldiers and playing games.  I've been making up some 20 plus year old Heavy Gear game miniatures and having a blast while doing so.  I find working with my hands very relaxing, and it gives me space to let my mind wander.

And the wonder is that when the mind wanders thoughts appear.  Ideas stream in from the dark recesses of the mind, and some are even worth writing down, to be incorporated into my novels.   As I have said before, I have drafts of both the sequels to my first novel done, but while I have an idea of an outline of where the series goes, nothing is yet set down.  Some of my ideas are elusive things that I can't quite get to grips with or, I can see that I haven't quite gone far enough in working out all the ramifications of the idea.

So, one word after another, I will carry on with the next chapter of Strike Dog, my plan being to rewrite a scene from another character's perspective.

Progress Update

It has been a while since I've made a post about my writing.

I've been going through a slow period due to a combination of factors, some in my control, some not.  My day job demands have been rising, a victim of my own success, but my manager has got that under control, and I feel a lot let stressed: not just from the work, but from the pressure of having to commit to more work than I can manage.

It's also that time of the year where the weather is miserable, it's dark, damp and cold.  I've felt run down and even went off reading, which is a thing.  I've only just managed to finish reading a second novel this year.  The first was Eric Frank Russell's The Great Explosion, actually read so I could review it for Galactic Journey, see here.

After that I started Michael Z. Williamson's When Diplomacy Fails.  I've only mentioned his work in passing back here, and it took me longer to read the third book in the Ripple Creek series as I kept putting it down.  That says more about me than the book, but the author is better handling action than he is with interior dialogues of character beliefs: as in the action grips you by the seat of the pants that is hard to match when writing reflective thoughts that are well meaning, but ultimately don't really add anything i.e.: could be removed without detriment to the story.

Still, Williamson is one of those authors who I will buy his latest book when it's available in paperback because he delivers high octane action goodness.  Inspirational too.

So, looking at my diary this year I've only managed to work on my second novel a total of four days out of a possible 16: with some caveats I might say eight days because writing for my blogs and other people's blogs take time, as in they don't write themselves and the Galactic Journey pieces take a lot of research time to do too.  That's not a complaint, just an observation.  But, assuming that I'm now only going to realistically write one day a week it has consequences on how long it's going to take me to finish the edits on my second novel.

Currently I'm at chapter 16 of Strike Dog out of 62; OK some of those are very short chapters.  Words wise I've done 31,209 words out of 97,578 with 66,369 to go, which doesn't sound so bad: a third of the way through rather than just a quarter.  However, this doesn't take into account any extra writing I will do to add sub-plots etc.  There's a lot resting on this second novel, given that the first was rejected, because the publisher wants to see my second one.  I really want to nail it so they'll want to publish my story, because it would make my life so much easier than having to self-publish, given the demands of my day job.

Finally, rewatched Predator over the weekend.  Thirty years old and still eminently rewatchable.   As the old saw goes, they don't make them like that anymore.  And that's not sarcasm, this movie is a streamlined, pulse-pounding action flick that grabs one from the opening scene and keeps the roller-coaster ride going until the end.  Neither of the sequels are as good even though both have merits, the third being better than the second because the second hasn't dated well.

NASA Trappist

And if you have the time you can listen to the full announcement on YouTube.

Isn't science wonderful?