Writing Prompt:
Write about a librarian searching for the only book never returned to her small town library.
I pounded out this 1,500-word story last night, and I rather like it. I may look around for somewhere to submit it, so I’m just going to post a little bit of it here. I also think this is the best title I’ve ever come up with (though that’s not saying much).
I should note that Dear Mr. Henshaw is a heartbreaking work of genius. Reading that book without crying proves only that you have a heart of stone.
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I haven’t read any of the reviews, but apparently they’ve been pretty bad. Honestly, I don’t know what the complaints are. The film was a blast. The visuals are spectacular. The story is easy to follow (including a number of flash backs that could have easily been confusing, but were worked in beautifully). It’s incredibly faithful to the old cartoon series, but awesome. Plus, there’s a monkey fighting a ninja. It seems like it might be too long (clocks in over 2 hours), but the movie is all action and it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s that long.
I guess if you are old and stuffy, the visuals might overwhelm you enough that you can’t follow the film. So maybe that’s the problem with the reviewers? I have a feeling a lot of them made their decision based on the marketing and went in prejudiced.
I’m genuinely sad that a lot of people didn’t go see Speed Racer - Iron Man absolutely slaughtered it at the box office this past weekend. With Indy coming out next week, I’m afraid Speed just isn’t going to get a chance to shine. I’m looking forward to seeing it again - the theater we saw it at was pretty bad, so I definitely want to see it again on DLP.
So, especially if you have young (i.e., under 60) kids in the family, do yourself a favor and go check out Speed Racer.
Update: I looked over some reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes, and it seems as though I was right. The reviewers mantra seems to be “Too many colors! Too shiny!” and “I loved the cartoon and this had the same story as the cartoon so this is bad!” I normally tend to side with reviewers, but this is a case where their system fails. They, as a whole, seemed to have missed the point.
Another Edit: Oops, Indy doesn’t come out for two more weeks. Narnia next weekend. Do people care about Narnia? I don’t know how to predict that one. The first one did well enough I think. Maybe if there’s some good word of mouth Speed Racer can come out on top next weekend, but it’ll be tough. The damage is probably already done.
Prompt:
Write a story using six of the following words: blast, teleport, squad, lupine, waterfall, autumn, ship, velvet, beam, amulet.
I had a lot of fun with this. There’s a lot to be said for these sorts of space adventure stories. The equation is something like this:
gruff spacefaring roughneck + adorable sidekick x villainous robots/aliens/pirates/space zombies = win!
670 words of two-fisted space adventure! (more…)
Lyndon Perry over at The Fix has reviewed the whole of issue 4 of A Thousand Faces. There’s a lengthy paragraph on “Shades of Red“! It is glowing!
Thanks to Jens for the heads up!
Red 5’s Atomic Robo, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener - I picked up all six issues of this at Cape! this past weekend, and it’s a blast. It’s basically Hellboy, but with a robot, and more science-oriented than mystic. Some of the best material is the little digs the famous scientists take at each other. Great stuff. As I’m reading it, I see a lot of the same type of storytelling I want to do with Asta, my android detective; the series can jump around in time and tell a variety of stories, all while leaving the character essentially unchanged. Atomic Robo was even built around the same time (a little earlier, from what I gather).
The New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 1, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez - this is the book that saved DC back in the early ’80s. While I like some of the individual Titans as characters, as a team they’ve never really interested me much. This hasn’t really changed that opinion. This hasn’t aged as well as some of the X-Men books from the same time period. I will say this, though–they pack a lot of story into each of those issues.
Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black - Mystery novel set in 1950s Ireland. I’ve barely gotten started on it, but it seems really good so far.
Saw Iron Man last night.
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. There were a few very minor things I could nitpick, but I won’t. Because it’s awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing it a couple more times. I was giddy going in, with crazy high expectations. I think the last time I was this excited to see a movie was…maybe Phantom Menace? Except this time I wasn’t met with crushing disappointment and epic fail. Make sure you stay after the credits and prepare yourself for multiple nerdgasms. (And if someone behind you shouts “He’s white!” turn and punch them in the neck.)
Anyway, back to the grindstone. It’s a new month, so we have started a new prompt contest. I’ve started right out of the gate!
Prompt:
Write a story about a rattletrap ship (spaceship, pirate ship, air ship, ocean liner, etc.) and its crew.
I started out intending to make this a spaceship story, but it took a kind of a weird turn into some sort of Irish steampunk thing. I like it, though, it has potential. About 560 words.
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Every Day Fiction has posted their Table of Contents for May, and it looks like my mystery flash piece “Aftershocks” will be appearing there on the 22nd. I’ll post another reminder here the day of, of course. I’m particularly proud of this piece.
And I believe this marks the first time anyone has referred to me as an “author.” 
I’ll be wandering around Cape! this Saturday handing out flyers for A Thousand Faces. If anyone else in the Dallas area is going, let me know. I should be wearing one of these. And if you’re not going, why not? It’s a great event, especially for kids. Hope took her nephew a couple years ago and he loved it. Plus you get lots of free stuff. Seriously, lots. I have a stack of free comics from three years ago I still haven’t gotten around to reading. And they have half-a-block’s worth of long boxes full of quarter comics. It’s win-win.
Yesterday I submitted the cake story. It seems like a prestigious sort of joint, so who knows if they’ll let my sort in there. And I’m hoping in the next day or so to have news on when my next story will be appearing over at Every Day Fiction. Exhilarating!
Issue 4 of A Thousand Faces has gone live! My epic superhero story “Shades of Red” is included. Check it out!
Just finished watching the last of Extras. I’m a big fan of Ricky Gervais from The Office, and Extras does not disappoint. I think the scene of Ian McKellan explaining how to act might be one of the funniest moments in television history.
Writing exercise: Write a story about a superhero with an embarrassingly mundane power.
This one ended up a little long, so I’m just going to post the first half of it. It’s a pretty stupid last half anyway, so you’re not missing much. I actually really like the concept of the Liberty Gang; obviously, a patriotic-themed supergroup is nothing new, but I dig the concept that, if something were to befall the core team, or any single member of that team, there are sleeper agents, if you will, among the citizenry who can step up to take their place. It seems very appropriate, power to the people and all that. With some tweaking, I might work them into the Scarlet Ranger’s story, as they have a very Silver Age feel to them, which is about when Kelly would have spent her formative years. They’ll probably have disbanded by the time we reach the “Shades of Red” era.
About 560 words.
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