Monthly Archives: April 2008

Late to the party

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…again.

A friend of mine told me about Carnivàle when it was originally on TV. I don’t get HBO, though, and I wasn’t interested in getting hooked on episodic TV either (which worked out well, aside from a slight Battlestar Galactica addiction).

But the first season was on sale at Wal*Mart the other month, for like $20, so I said “What the hey” and bought it. Tonight I put the first disc in the player.

It’s pretty fantastic; the first episode was well laid out, with a self-contained story and the promise of more to come.

It seems to be a story of the war between good and evil, in 1934, during the Dust Bowl years. It’s well-acted, well-written, and the production values are unimpeachable. Ronald D. Moore, who produced this series (or at least the episode I watched) went on to “re-imagine” Battlestar Galactica, my addiction to which I’ve already mentioned.

This series promises to be interesting. Hopefully I can find the second (and, I believe, final) season somewhere too.

Very early sneak peek

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From Cinder, still very much in early 1st draft (this is from the second scene, and it was only written about an hour ago):

Outside, vast energies swirled, sending translucent streamers of pale light shivering over the crystal of the great window. Through them, she could see stars, shivering and sparkling through the bow-wake of the shielding. One red star, at the window’s center, showed a broad disc, even at this distance. Sol, then. She watched it, bringing up filters in the crystal window to examine it without squinting or leaking more brine from her eyes.

After a dozen minutes or so she saw a tiny shadow right at Sol’s center.

“Is that Earth?” she said, touching the shadow.

»Yes, the ship sent on her private channel. »Please, I must concentrate.

She nodded. The ship was far too polite to ignore her, or to outright tell her to shut up.

The shadow swelled: a dot, a disc, a planet. A rocky black sphere, large enough to blot out the sun, and still they approached. She almost asked the ship why they approached in shadow, but realized that would tax the environment systems less.

“She” is Lady Schrone, who is new to a human body (hence the bit about brine).

I really want this story to work; I find the idea interesting, and I’m trying to develop enough points of view and storylines to go the distance. Let me know what you think.

Writing update

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I’m trying to work on a couple of projects, with some success. I’ve got a new site set up for a project I’m calling Cinder, and someday, maybe I’ll fill it up with content. Right now I’ve got a cloud of ideas, but I wanted to get the design right. Ok, I wanted to play in Photoshop and/or the GIMP.

I’m also working on a longish short story (9000 words, right now, but it may expand or contract; first drafts, you know) set in Ukraine, titled “Between Heaven and Earth”. It may be one of the darkest things I’ve ever written, and I think it may get darker before it’s done.

And I’ve still got my zombies vs. pirates story on the go, and I also want to work on my nano winner from a couple years ago.

Well, back at ‘er.