Month: March 2004

Editor person where are you? – Part II

Writer guy

Via Rogue lackey I heard that Editor person did not enjoy yesterday’s entry. Was it something I blogged?

Rogue Lackey: That was not a very nice blog you wrote yesterday.
sam: it all comes down to conflict, I just went with the tension in the situation.
Rogue Lackey: I’ll give you something to conflict!
sam: Come on lackey, take it easy.
Rogue Lackey: You’ve been a very cheeky little boy in this blog lately.
sam: I’m 31. When do I graduate to just plain cheeky?
Rogue Lackey: When you stop with this cheekiness.
sam: So I’m not going to be able to grow out of this.
Rogue Lackey: I think the time has come for me to Equalize the situation.
sam: Which means?
Rogue Lackey: I leave that for you to figure out.

Rogue Lackey did one of those pregnant pause things and hung up. I’m going to go check the locks on my door now.

Editor person where are you?

Writer guy

Editor person has gone mad, only not like crazy like they usually are but like seasonal bug ill. It happens about once a year and is terribly inconvenient.

sam: Hey what say we meet up and go over some pages?
Editor Person: I’m ill.
sam: I hear you, but since you aren’t working for the Man right now, it means you have some free time on your hands.
Editor Person: I’m ill. Can’t you see that?
sam: Not over the phone no.
Editor Person: Reread your lead in sentence for this blog and get back to me.
sam: What did the doctor say?
Editor Person: They said I’m ill.
sam: You never go to the doctor. I don’t believe you.
Editor Person: I’m ill. Is that getting through to you?
sam: But you’re home and everyone thinks you are ill, so you have time.
Editor Person: A pox on you you insolent author! A pox I say!
sam: I could send them email.
Editor Person: Don’t call. Don’t email. Don’t contact.
sam: Now you sound like a Hollywood agent.
Editor Person: This conversation is so over. So over. I’m sleeping now.
sam: When you wake up check your email.

Taking Lives

Writer guy

Take an FBI profiler with no personality, mix in some unconvincing actors, cheesy camera work, add a wafer thin plot and a matzo ball and you have some foul tasting soup. But at least you can digest the soup. That’s not the case with this movie.

The premise is that French Canadian cops fear they have a serial killer on their hands and they lack the expertise to solve the crime so they bring on a FBI profiler to help out. OK, fine. Since when have the French ever admitted they can’t do something? That glaring problem aside here’s a few more.

1) Angelina Jolie can play sluts very well. FBI profilers are not sluts. I can’t get past the sluttishness nature of her character. Please Angelina keep your clothes ON for a change. It’s bad enough we have to look at those wacky wall walkers you call lips.

2) Ethan Hawke can act, but not in this movie. I’m not going to speculate on what was going through his mind but it wasn’t this film. He was miscast here. We’ll chalk it up to a failed experiment.

3) The cinematography work was among the worst I’ve ever seen. Lots of overhead shots that looked down on the actors, lots of shots from the floor looking up at them. Lots of pointless shots that obscured their faces. Yet when it mattered the cameras didn’t seem to be on the action. It wasn’t arty, it wasn’t cute. It was annoying.

4) The only credible conflict was between Angelina Jolie and her French counterpart played by Oliver Martinez. He did act the role of cop not wanting her help. I can’t say she ever did anything to convince me that they needed her.

Survey says we have a problem with this flick. Now, in all fairness here’s some good things.

1) The premise of a killer taking on the life of the person they killed has potential. It’s an interesting what if.

2) It was in color.

3) The soundtrack was decent.

4) Only some of the theater left before the ending. Unfortunately I wasn’t one of them.

5) The film ended with my favorite U2 song.

DVD rental or cable. You won’t miss anything not having it on big screen.

It’s a bright and sunny day

Writer guy

The sun is shining, the weather is good and the wife is working. It’s the first nice day since the last grips of winter reared it’s ugly head and the only sun I’m getting is the light blasting through the window behind me.

I had a pretty good week at the machine. Momentum seems to have taken over and I’m closing in on the 120 page mark on Velocity. I’m starting to think I may not only have the second book done in the series before I sell the first, but I may get well into the third. If this writing clip holds, I’ll have a rough draft of Velocity done by mid May.

I’m not sure how long it will take to revise Velocity, since Editor Person is busy all the time these days. I can’t exactly ask them to take a vacation from their job to edit my book, so I’ll guess we’ll just sit down when the entire book is done.

Still I miss the Wednesday sessions. We’re meeting in a week or so to make sure The Ridge Runner is as spiffy as can be, in the hopes that the prospective agent asks to see the whole book. Still, if such a request comes from them it may not be for many more weeks. It’s all out of my hands…