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First, my obligatory announcement that I’ve put a post up over at the Indie Writer’s Monthly blog. This time, since JJ Abrams is so secretive, I’m speculating on how I see Star Wars Episode VII ending up.

Hint… there will be time travel, and possibly a wind up that involves taking the corpse of the Emperor and using it, Weekend at Bernie’s style, in order to fool Vader into… well, you’d just have to read it for more.

IN OTHER NEWS. I mentioned Clay’s Ark in my last post. Octavia Butler’s novel. I typically don’t do reviews here (that’s what Goodreads is for) but since I mentioned it, I figured I’d fill you in on my verdict.

Bad ending! Bad!

What started out as a very good story about an incurable infection and people trying to make a life for themselves in the post-apocalyptic world she created in the book, it eventually descended into something much darker, and in my opinion, almost indistinguishable from torture porn. I was not pleased.

I read the book outloud to my wife as a compromise so we can both read the story together, but after she fell asleep with about 50 pages left, I finished it off by myself and was stunned at the turn there at the end.

I told her that I did not recommend she finish the book, but just leave the happy memories she has of it untainted. 

I'm Not Dead

I'M BACK

It’s funny how a few days off quickly ballooned into a few months of sabbatical. Such is the nature of things I suppose. But a few months ago when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with things I decided to skip a week of blogging. Not just skip writing in my blog, but of visiting others as well.

And then another week passed, and another, and another. Before I knew it people were sending me emails wanting to know if I was okay. I guess I really have been away for a while now.

WHAT HAPPENED while I was out? Disney bought Lucasfilm (will I now see the 1977 theatrical version of Star Wars get released on Blu Ray? Without all the updates).

There was a presidential election – I think somebody won.

NASA KEEPS ANNOUNCING they’ve found evidence of that water once flowed on Mars in the ancient past – At some point, someone needs to talk to them about these sorts of things. This last one was this huge tease about something ‘game changing’ and it turned out to be just repeating what they’ve told us at least 3 other times in the recent past. I’m thinking about starting a conspiracy that they found real aliens there but the govt stepped in and shut them up before they could announce it… thusly changing their story at the last minute and bringing up the water thing yet again.

I FOUND OUT DUOTROPE is going to a subscription model in January. Something that saddened me greatly – it’s a website that many authors use as a resource to track their submissions to various markets. As the real value that the site offers is that so many people use it that you can find out what standard wait times are for markets you’ve submitted to, what their acceptance rate is, and a pretty slick search feature that helps identify the best markets for a story that you may have written, the rest of what they offer is more secondary, at least to me.

I imagine that the number of people that will leave the site after it goes subscription will really devalue the data they collect – and therefore devalue their service. That’s my fear anyway. I’m torn about whether or not I want to invest in moving it forward.

Other than that, I had a lot of free time. What did I do with it all? Well, I watched 5 seasons of 30 rock, I finally got caught up on The Walking Dead. I read a few books, I started and QUIT reading a few more books.

All while doing some soul-searching.

I’m not so sure I’m through with that last part. At least in regards to my writing. But that’s been my time in a nutshell. More later… it’s good to be back. Just baby steps for now.

Comment of the Week! Plus Other Stuff!

I apologize to everyone who visits today that is not Briane Pagel. Because it increasingly seems like he is taking up my spare time. Sigh. Sorry, everybody else, but today I talk about him again. For a couple of reasons.

First, he left this little gem of a comment last week.

Funny stuff. In addition to that, he has been running a Star Wars trivia contest that has, well, suffered a bit from an overabundance of Andrew Leon - as he threatens to win by such a large margin that I'm pretty sure Briane is looking for ways to give out points to anyone who isn't Andrew.

Case in point, he's created a Star Wars Fan Fic Fan Fic and is giving away bonus points for it. Sweet. I need those points because much to my consternation, 'Wookies' is not the answer to every single question. Dammit. I'm like the Hulk that way, he tries to resolve all his problems by smashing things, I answer every Star Wars related trivia question by shouting 'WOOKIE.' Go figure.

So, his rules dictate that I must write a story about one of my characters from a WIP of mine writing a fan fic about Star Wars in 250 words or less:

****

Todd leaned back in his barstool, almost to the point of tipping, and stirred his flirtini – his *apple* flirtini - with its skinny little straw. “Did you read it?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yoda does Yavin. That’s clever.”

He curtsied a bit. Weird how he did that. He looked like a medieval warlord transported through time and planted here in the bar. Big, beefy arms, nearly 300 pounds and way over six feet tall. He was a monster of man – but he hated stereotypical drinks. He’d never have a beer, an ale, a red wine, or anything that made him look like a brute. It was… disconcerting how he felt about his image.

“Did you take notes?” he asked.

“Leia, Padme, Chewie, Luke, R2, The Emperor… C’mon. This is just stupid. The Emperor, R2?”

“I think R2 could serve as a pleasure bot in a pinch.”

“Right. Sure.” I started to say something, continue the conversation, drag it along until he had said his peace. I’m sure he thought he was saying something insightful about the nature of love, of how the Force represents some metaphysical truth about how the universe operates, but I couldn’t do it.

I leaned forward and put my elbows on the pub table, Todd was still making the ice tinkle with his teeny little straw and frowning. He had this ruddy complexion that always made his cheeks glow red, like he was angry.

“Todd,” I said. “A guy in a fedora keeps looking this way.”

****

That ought to about cover it. Go check out the latest in his trivia contest, which is 100 questions in 100 days.

I Love You George Lucas!

Star Wars. You've heard of it, right? The Interwebs are afoot with the sounds of excitement. You see, Star Wars is coming to Blue Ray.

I know, you must be thinking something along the lines of, "So?" 

I understand. I really do. However, to entice you to purchase it, Mr. Lucas has decided to add something to the movies yet again. Does anyone remember this scene from Return of the Jedi?

Well, apparently, we will get an added line of dialog as Vader tosses the beloved Emperor over the railing. If the rumors are true - which they are, as Lucasfilm has confirmed them, after all - Somewhere in that video above, and I guess it's going to be around the 1:10 mark, Vader will now utter this line:

"Noooooo."

Wow. That isn't the only change, I think he's making the Ewoks blink, for whatever that's worth. I think all the complaints about Ewoks ruining Jedi will go away after seeing that they blink. Awesome.

Actually, I wouldn't care a bit for all these changes one way or another if the originals were still available for me to have. But I don't want to go there, that's something for another day. The truth is that I probably wouldn't notice some of the more subtle changes, as I don't watch the films very often any more. But I just get a kick out of the constant tinkering that these films have gone through over the past 15 years. I think he really is like a writer that just can't leave his manuscript alone.

Here is a link to the story about some of the latest changes.

Okay, so say Lucas called you and said, "I need a single line of dialog for Vader to say as he tosses Palpatine over the rail."

What line would you give him?