Wordcount Wednesday

So I'm doing my wordcount update a bit early today because I don't think I'll be getting any more writing done today or tonight. I just finished another read-through of Numb and fixed some time-line issues (I had accidentally introduced some temporal jumping that made little sense once I charted it all out). I guess next I'll be moving on to work on Return of the Mourning Dove some more.

But in the meantime, I need your help.


I've been talking about this for the past two weeks now, but I'm going to plug Marcher Lord Select once again. It's a publishing contest being sponsored by Marcher Lord Press. In the main contest, the on-line judges (that's you guys) will be able to pick a book out of 36 that will be published in spring of 2010. In the premise contest, three entries will be selected (out of the 49 that have been entered) to receive priority acquisition attention by Marcher Lord. The entries are now posted in the Anomaly, the forum board run by the publisher of Marcher Lord Press, and I want to encourage you to go check it all out. Free registration is required to participate. The voting for the first round starts in a week and a half (Nov. 13-15). You have to vote for at least three entries for your vote to count.

But I want you to do more than participate. I would like you to vote for my entries. I wasn't sure if I could reveal titles or anything like that, but I recently found out that I could.

So my entry in the main contest is The Last Expedition. It's listed in the first 10 entries. My entry in the premise contest is Numb and is toward the end of the entry list. I'm not demanding that you vote for my entries. If you read through the other entries and you find stuff you like better, I certainly understand and I encourage you to follow your own conscience. But please consider supporting me with your vote.

And if you'd rather hear my less-than-stellar voice explain all this, just click the player below.

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V

"We are of peace. Always."

I mean, seriously, how can you trust a race of aliens who learn the language but not the grammar?

Okay. Ahem. Sorry about that. I'll shift gears into the more serious review mode.

Obviously I watched the premiere of V tonight. In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't watch the original. At least, I don't think I did. I seem to recall walking in on one of my babysitters who was watching it, but I could be mistaken. Who knows?

Anyway, the premise is the same. Alien spaceships drop out of the sky and hover over major cities. The leader of the Visitors, named Anna (played by Morena Baccarin of Firefly fame), assures the surprised and frightened inhabitants of Earth that they popped in to trade with us. We give them water and an unspecified mineral, they give human beings access to technology, such as advanced healing techniques that can deal with 35 different diseases.

Humanity falls all over themselves to welcome the Visitors. Well, almost everyone. There are a few who aren't too pleased, such as FBI agent Erica Evans or Father Jack Landry.

What leaves me scratching my head is that none of the world leaders seem all that suspicious. I mean, really, nobody thought that aliens from outer space might have ulterior motives for the human race, that "unspecified mineral" might be a euphemism for . . . oh, I don't know, soylent green? I mean, I understand that Barack Obama might not question it since the V took care of that whole universal healthcare business . . . Right. That was a cheap shot, sorry. But really? Only a few dozen people are suspicious?

I'm not sure where this will go. I'm not sure I'm totally enamored of it. But hey, I'll keep watching, only to see if the Visitors learn proper grammar.

Upside Down

So is it Christ or us who are upside down? A look at the Beatitudes from a new angle.

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

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Paranormal Activity

Normally I'm not a fan of horror movies. They just don't do anything for me. I've never seen any of the Freddy or Jason movies. I steadfastly refuse to watch the various Saws. I made an exception for the Scream franchise and I did enjoy them, but that sort of movie normally doesn't tickle my fancy.

With one exception: I'm a sucker if the movie is supposed to be "real."

I don't know why I have that weakness exactly. But if something is supposed to be "real life," I'll be there in the front row, ready to go.

This isn't a new phenomena for me either. A little over ten years ago, the now-defunct UPN network aired a travesty entitled Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, which was supposedly "found footage" of an entire family in Lake County, Minnesota, being abducted by aliens. The footage was grainy and full of static. The family panic seemed real. The footage was interspersed with interviews with experts (including two I recognized, Stanton Friedman and Michael Shermer). UPN billed the whole thing as real. When it aired, my brother and I watched it and played "X Files" with it. He took the "it's real" stance. I tried to argue it was all fake. We were deadlocked until we saw the final credits and realized that the entire family and the aliens were all given credits. I used to have the thing on tape and even showed it to some college friends of mine. I still get chills when I remember the last image of the final abductee.

Of course, the next year came an even bigger scare, namely The Blair Witch Project. Once again, supposedly found footage about three young people who went into the woods looking for a witch and never came out again. And yes, I know, a lot of people didn't like the movie and I can understand why. Not a lot happened and when stuff did, it was out of focus. But again, that final image in the basement still haunts me. I seriously couldn't go into my own basement after dark for a week. I think part of this movie's success was from the fact that they built such a great mythos around it. The stars didn't do press until a few months after the movie was released, so there was that great question mark hanging over the movie (although let's be honest. If the footage was real, there's no way it would be released to theaters. Just saying).

There have been other movies that have tried this to greater and lesser effect. The most recent example was Cloverfield, a great monster movie supposedly made of "found footage."

Which brings us to what this review is really all about: Paranormal Activity.

The premise is pretty simple: a young woman named Katie has apparently been "haunted" since she was eight. She's since moved in with her boyfriend, a day trader named Micah (but pronounced Mee-kah), who decides that maybe they should turn her paranormal problems into a reality show. Yeah, like nobody would ever think to do that. Ever. They also consult with a psychic who somehow knows that this isn't a ghost, it's actually a demon. Katie and Micah do their best to deal with their nocturnal visitor, who steps up a campaign of terror over what amounts to a month or so of mostly sleepless nights. Things go bang in the night. Strange things happen to Katie. And it all builds up to a supposedly terrifying ending that really didn't do it for me.

I'm actually a little surprised I wasn't more scared by this movie. Compared to Blair Witch, this is the better movie in terms of suspense and build-up. Whereas the former was mostly shaking tents and blurry bloody body parts, this one was pretty obvious. When something spooky happened, you knew what was happening. And the "presence," or whatever you want to call it, certainly ramped up the terror games throughout the movie. There was one point where I was cringing in my seat, certain that the movie was about the end badly.

But the movie kept going. And I think that's part of the reason why I left the theater more bemused than frightened. If the director would have cut off the last minute or two and avoided the over-the-top effect he saved for the very last second, I would have been rattled pretty badly. But thanks to that last minute or two, I wound up rolling my eyes and thinking, "Whatever."

And I think that's another weakness of the film, definitely where it lacks against Blair Witch. Maybe I'm misremembering things, but I seem to recall that there was that massive question mark hovering over Blair Witch. Was this real? If it isn't, where are the actors? Who are they? That sort of thing. It wasn't until weeks into the run that the "truth" was revealed, that the actors went on Leno, that the whole thing was revealed to be fiction.

But I knew before I even set foot into the theater that what I was seeing wasn't real. While it certainly smacked of reality, I had that safety valve in the back of my mind. If things got too tense (and a lot of scenes trended that way for me), I could simply remind myself, "Hey, the actors are on this week's cover for Entertainment Weekly. They're fine. It's just a movie."

Don't get me wrong. There are some genuine chills and plenty of "jump-out-of-your-seat" moments that had my heart pumping and my palms sweaty. And it's an incredible testament to the keep-it-simple-stupid philosophy. I mean, this was made for $11,000, for crying out loud! I just don't know if it's the incredible phenomenon everyone makes it out to be.

But I still have that soft spot for these kinds of movies. Which is why I think my next excursion to the theater will be for a movie whose trailer I saw this afternoon: The Fourth Kind. I think they may be a little liberal in saying it's based on "case studies," but I'll still be ready to see what I can see. How about you?

Wordcount Wednesday

So let's see here. What can I say about writing this week? I did more work on my entries for Marcher Lord Select (you read that right, I'm in both the main and premise contests. Double your . . . never mind). I also did some promo work for said contest.

Oh, and I also got a highly encouraging rejection letter. And yes, you read that right too.

Funny thing about rejection letters. A few years back, I would have been devastated by a rejection slip from an editor or agent. Now I expect them. I'm even thinking of getting a frame so I can proudly display my latest.

Especially this one. It was for Numb but the agent in question had a few positive things to say about it and he even included some suggestions.

This is well nigh unheard of. You better believe I'm going to be paying attention.

So that's it for me this week. I'm continuing my "time-line" read-through on Numb. I've been doing a lot of mulching on a new story idea with my brothers-in-law. I call this one the superhero story. Catchy, no? Well, it's a work in progress. Not even in progress, I guess. Maybe a work in preparation. More on it when the time comes.

Now to go find a good frame . . .

Eternity Falls

Imagine a future world. A genetics company has hit a literal fountain of youth. They can shut off the aging process at a cellular level and allow people to live pretty much forever. Thousands of people have had the Miracle Treatment, as they call it.

Only now one of them is dead. From natural causes. And she's the company's spokesperson.

Enter Rick Macey, a private investigator hired by the vice president of the company, to figure out what happened to Greta Darling, an eighty nine year old actress who looks to be twenty two. The vice president, Sheila Dunn, believes that a religious nut is out to bring down the company and the Treatment. She hopes Macey, with his unique background in the Civil Defense and Intelligence.

The thing is, Macey knows she's not far wrong.

Now Macey is on a collision course with his past, trying to find a solution to this conundrum before eternity falls . . .

That's the basic premise of Eternity Falls by Kirk Outerbridge. I don't think I've ever read a cyberpunk novel before. At least, I can't remember any. I don't think this one will be forgettable. Outerbridge created a very realistic world with a definite history and inner logic that hangs together quite well. The Los Angeles of the late 21st century is a strange mixture of glitz and desolation with colorful denizens and plenty of problems.

The theological underpinnings of the story were fascinating. I won't go into those either. But Outerbridge skirted a fine line and didn't fall over the edge with this one and I really appreciated what he did.

But most of all, this book was a fun read! Lots of adventure, action, and good humor.

My only complaint is that the romantic subplot seemed a bit tacked on. At the very least, the shift into it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But that's a minor thing.

You can't go wrong with this one.

Truth . . . Free!

Jesus is the Truth that sets everyone free.

Text: John 8:31-36

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