by Jane | Apr 27, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King opens with an abandoned classic car at a gas station. The thing is, once examined, it doesn’t look like an old car at all, more like an approximation of one. Impounded by a group of Pennsylvania State Troopers, the Buick begins to act in very strange ways: emitting bursts of lights, making people vanish, and producing some otherworldly creatures. Told as a story to 18-year-old Ned Wilcox, son of a trooper killed in the line of duty, From a Buick 8 reveals facts about the boy’s father, and the thing that almost surely led to his death.
I really enjoyed this book. A fan of King’s since the beginning, I read all of his books in the ’70s and ’80s, then fell off in the 1990s. Occasionally, I would go back and read some of his books from the late ’90s or 2000s, but didn’t enjoy them nearly as much as his earlier work. From a Buick 8 is the exception. It has to be my favorite book of his from this century.
Suspenseful in parts, but not a horrifyingly scary as some of his other works, like The Shining, this book would be good for people who like tension, but don’t want to be scared out of their pants. I highly recommend From a Buick 8.
by Jane | Apr 20, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
It’s interesting to go back through an actor’s career and compare his or her roles. I found myself doing that recently with Scott Bakula. I have been a fan of his three TV shows and have recently been watching them concurrently due to the magic of Netflix. Dr. Sam Beckett, Capt. Jonathan Archer, and Agent Dwayne Pride. How are these characters the same, and how are they different?
Sam Beckett is a character Scott Bakula played on Quantum Leap. Beckett is a scientist who develops a way to travel in time; however, he finds himself stuck “leaping” from one person’s life to another “setting right what once went wrong”, presumably by the hand of a higher power. Sam is smart, inventive, and always goes the extra mile for the people whose lives he has leapt into. That being said, he is also a bit naïve. He needs Al, his friend from the future (who appears to him as a hologram) to keep him focused. However, for good or bad, Sam usually wins out.
Captain Archer is from the last TV installment of the Star Trek franchise, entitled Enterprise. Bakula plays the leader of the Earth’s first deep space mission. At the beginning of the series, Archer is a lot like Sam Beckett, but after a while, he learns that he can’t always be “good” and do what his fine moral sense would dictate. Sometimes, for the greater good (e.g., his ship or the Earth), he has to do things that are unseemly and don’t fit his image of what a starship captain should be.
Dwayne Pride, supervising agent on NCIS: New Orleans, is still a bit of a mystery since the show it only in its first season. However, there are parts of both of the other characters in him. Pride definitely wants to help people. He feels for the victims in his cases and for the people who work for him. Yet, he does have a history which is not entirely clean, and he has a bit of a renegade in him. (Like when he runs off to take care of something on his own without telling his team.)
Pride appears to be the most complex of the characters, especially at the beginning of the series. Beckett remained pretty much the same throughout, while Archer grew the most. Time will tell what happens with Pride.
So, Bakula has done a great job in creating three memorable characters. It seems he may have used his experience with other roles to define his current one, a thing which good actors do a lot. And yet, he has also managed to maintain the differences, and give us a great viewing experience no matter what role he takes. Let’s hope NCIS:NO lasts a long time and that Bakula will be acting for a long time after that.
by Jane | Apr 13, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer , the first in the Southern Reach Trilogy, concerns an part of the world cut off from the rest, known only as Area X. Eleven expeditions have been sent to uncover its mysteries, but have had varying results. One reported it as idealistic. Others killed themselves or each other, and the latest expedition members returned changed, only to die soon thereafter.
The twelfth expedition consists of four women known only as the psychologist, the anthropologist, the surveyor, and the biologist. Told through the biologist’s eyes, mysteries beget more mysteries, as she makes her way past dangers from the environment, as well as her own team members.
Annihilation is an intriguing little book of less than 200 pages. Some mysteries are solved or at least hinted at, but nothing is totally resolved. I can only imagine that that is what the next two books are for.
I enjoyed the book, but not so much that I will continue with the series. The biologist has made her own conclusions and decisions, and I would just as soon leave it at that. I give this book a B+.
by Jane | Apr 3, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is the story of a little girl named Vic who has a magical passageway to whatever she needs to find. This passageway is The Shorter Way Bridge and she rides across it on her Raleigh bicycle, long after the actual bridge has crumbled and fallen.
Finding things you need is nice and fun, but going across the bridge affects Vic physically — and these effects are cumulative. Plus, she doesn’t realize that one day the bridge will lead her to a very evil man called Charlie Manx. He has his own special ride — a Rolls Royce with license plate NOS4A2. Manx uses this vehicle to transport children to Christmasland, his own messed-up version of fun, while his assistant deals with the parents in any way he wishes.
Vic narrowly escapes Manx as a teenager, but will meet up with him again as an adult. Due to the effects of crossing the bridge, everyone thinks she’s crazy, but she must push forward because she is the only one who can stop him.
NOS4A2 is an amazing book. It will grab your attention at the beginning and keep it all the way to the end. Joe Hill is the pen name of Joseph Hillstrom King, son of the legendary Stephen King. Although his writing has many similarities to his father’s, Hill is a great story-teller on his own. NOS4A2 is his third novel, and I hope he has many more.
by Jane | Mar 28, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
As you might have seen from my post on bingeing, I have recently gotten into the tv series Grimm. What I didn’t do in that post was tell you anything about the show itself. I’ll do that now.
Grimm is a take-off on Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In the opener, Detective Nick Burkhardt starts seeing strange things in people’s faces, things he can’t explain. He is then visited by an aunt, who explains to him about his heritage. She tells him that all the fairy tale creatures are real, but they appear human most of the time. They only show their true selves when under stress. But the only humans who can see them are those descended from the Grimm brothers, like Nick and his aunt (unless the creatures want to show themselves). These people are known as Grimms, and the creatures are called wesen (pronounced “vessen”).
Historically, Grimms have chased down and killed wesen, but as a police officer, Nick doesn’t want to do that unless absolutely necessary. He chases wesen when they break the law, but tries to stay within the law himself. Luckily, he has information and weapons left by his aunt to help him identify and stop the various wesen types.
The tv show contains a lot of different languages, mostly German, but also French and Spanish. If you’ve taken any of these languages, it’s fun to try and understand them without use of the subtitles. But what I enjoy even more is the pseudo-German used in the names of the wesen. Since I studied German in school, I like to try and understand the basis for their names. (For instance, “blutbad” means blood bath and “jaegerhund” is hunting hound.)
I like all the characters: Nick, his girlfriend Juliette, his partner Hank, but my favorite is Monroe, Nick’s wesen friend who helps him find his way in the wesen world. Monroe is kind of a geeky blutbad (sort of a werewolf), who Nick relies on heavily. At first, Monroe didn’t want to be bothered, but over time has accepted his role, and he and Nick have become friends. Of course, Hank and Juliette know none of this (at least at first), but that just contributes to the fun of the show.
I love this show. It’s kind of a quirky Supernatural, full of suspense and whimsy. It’s just a lot of fun. Don’t take it too seriously, but enjoy what it has to offer. I’m sure you won’t regret it.
by Jane | Mar 20, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
For the past 18 months or so, I have been delightfully bingeing new and old TV shows, courtesy of my new Roku and companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Question is, is this a good or a bad thing?
First, let me say that I have been enjoying it a great deal. I started out with shows such as The Tudors, then to the Harry Potter movies, Mission Impossible (the TV show, not the movie), on to Supernatural (to get caught up before the new season) and the Star Trek TV shows (yes, all of them). Having exhausted TV shows I knew, I searched for other scifi/fantasy shows. I found Firefly and Continuum that way. Again, I really enjoyed both.
Then came Grimm. TNT started running four episodes each Wednesday night. I thought it was a new show with a new idea. Taking advantage of the bingeing trend to present a new show. Eventually, through Twitter and also just by checking the descriptions on FIOS of each episode (what do you mean Season 2 — this is a brand new show, isn’t it?). Well, as soon as I learned that it was an old series that would start its new season on NBC in the fall, I figured I needed to catch up even quicker. Voila! I discovered it on Amazon Prime — free for the taking for any Prime customer (me!).
So, now I’m watching 3 or 4 episodes a day, rather than a week, get to Season 4 and BOOM! Season 4 costs money – $1.99 per episode for non-HD. Netflix offers it on DVD, but it’s not available yet. So, here I am sitting around, missing Grimm — Nick, Monroe, Isabelle, and the rest, wondering when I can see a new episode.
Yes, I know. It’s kind of like the old days when you had to wait all summer for new episodes. But somehow this is different. The Star Treks are available — I can watch them any time I wish. As to Firefly and Continuum — I knew they were limited series. I hesitated watching them for that reason. But that’s OK because I knew it going in. In the meantime, I’ve watched the movie Serenity which ties up loose ends for Firefly, and I’ve heard there will be another season of Continuum.
I think the point is I really miss Grimm, because I was watching several episodes a day, and it was abruptly taken from me. I figure eventually Amazon will release the episodes free on Prime and Netflix will release the DVDs. And if not in time for Season 5 on NBC, I’ll DVR those and just wait. (I can do that — look at how long we’ve waited for Star Wars 7).
So, back to my original question — to binge or not to binge. I say, go ahead and binge — you get a chance to enjoy hours of a TV show you like. Just realize that it may be taken from you and you might miss it sooner that you expect.
by Jane | Mar 16, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
The Martian is Andy Weir’s first book and the best science fiction novel I have read in a very long time. Much of the book is told through a journal by astronaut Mark Watney, who is stranded on Mars. Believing he is dead after a freak accident pierces his space suit, his fellow astronauts take off for Earth and abandon him.
After he manages to patch up both himself and his space suit, Watney is faced with how to survive on Mars with limited resources until the next Mars mission arrives in four years. Since the team left early due to a sand storm, there are supplies left, enough for six people for a couple of months, but still not enough to sustain one person for four years.
Luckily, Watney, with his expertise in both botany and engineering, finds ways to extend his resources. The fun is taking the trip along with him. In his journal, we see Watney’s ingenuity as well as his wit. We can follow his thought processes as he uses his knowledge of science in creative ways, but we also get insight into his personality. While The Martian is very suspenseful at times, it can also be very funny, as the astronaut uses his humor to dispel his fear of death.
Well worth the read, I highly recommend The Martian for any fan of science fiction. I hope we see a lot more from Andy Weir in the future.
by Jane | Mar 6, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
I thought I could not let another post go by without a tribute to Leonard Nimoy. I have read many tributes online and don’t feel like I could equal any of them. So, I just thought I’d say how he was an important part of my childhood and I will not forget him. I’m sorry he’s gone, but he will live on in his work.
Here are a few images I found. If interested, you can find more on my Pinterest page.
by Jane | Feb 27, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
I am happy to announce that I have two poems coming out in magazines this month and next. “The Incantation” is now available in the February 2015 issue of Trysts of Fate, which you can access here. Trysts of Fate is a paranormal romance magazine which publishes stories, poetry, and articles about the genre. I’ve looked at some of the poems and stories and they are quite good. I’m happy to be associated with this magazine.
My other poem, “The Deserted Playground”, will be in Issue #11 of Literary Hatchet, which will be out in April. This magazine describes itself as follows:
“The Literary Hatchet publishes contemporary short fiction, poetry, prose, photography, cartoons, and humor by established and emerging writers and artists from around the world. Subjects range from mystery, murder, macabre, horror, monsters, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night.”
The Literary Hatchet has both online and print versions of its magazine. The online version is provided as a free pdf, or you can buy the print version. Either can be obtained here.
by Jane | Feb 20, 2015 | Write Here Write Now
These are the Voyages — TOS: Season One by Marc Cushman gives an extraordinary amount of detail about Star Trek, starting with a biography of Gene Roddenberry and moving though the production of “Operation: Annihilate”, the last Season 1 episode filmed. I want to recommend it, but with a caveat. The first few chapters are so dense and detailed, I found them hard to read. I had to read one chapter, then set the book aside for a while. After finishing five chapters, I set it aside, not sure if I would pick it up again.
Don’t get me wrong — I enjoyed reading about how Star Trek was conceived and evolved. What dragged me down were things like Lucille’s biography and how Desilu was formed, along with long bios of most of the production staff for the second pilot Where No Man Has Gone Before.
But one day I found myself out of reading material and went back to These are the Voyages. Chapter 6 was about the making of the first pilot, which I found very interesting. Chapter 7 had more bios of staff, but also discussed the selection of the cast (aside from William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, already cast). From there on, almost every chapter dealt with the production of one episode, and I found myself reading two or three chapters at a sitting, instead of just one.
There were several things I found interesting in this book. One was script development, how the scripts were assigned, then written and rewritten, taking into account not only the characters in the series but also how much the episode would cost to produce. Also, production was almost always behind schedule and over budget, and the air order of the episodes was different from production order due to the amount of special effects needed in certain episodes.
Another point of interest for me was the development of a specific character, namely Yeoman Rand. According to the book, Rand was supposed to have a sexual tension with Kirk. Me, I never got that. The only thing bordering on that that I remember was in the episode “Miri”, when Rand confessed that she had wanted the captain to look at her legs while on the bridge. Of course, there was also her attempted rape by him in “The Enemy Within”, but that could have been just random. Frankly, I always found her very distant and was glad when the character was deleted from the series. (Or maybe it was just the hair.)
There were other things I found intriguing, but in the interest of brevity, I want to jump to a discussion on Harlan Ellison and “The City on the Edge of Forever”. Most Star Trek fans know that he was very upset about the rewrite of his script to the point that he wanted to use a pseudonym in the credits. As implied in an earlier paragraph, most writers were heavily rewritten, sometimes by Roddenberry, sometimes by Gene Coon (producer of the show starting mid-first season), and sometimes by a story editor on staff. Sometimes all of the above.
Cushman included a summary of Ellison’s original script, which was excellent and quite different from the script that aired. It was exciting and contained a lot more action than the aired episode. But it also seemed to me that there was enough in there to make a movie, not just a tv show. Many of the changes were for economy, others for Roddenberry’s vision. For instance, he would never have allowed a drug dealer on board the Enterprise. Still, Ellison unfortunately never got over his anger, despite the success of the aired episode. (As of this writing, I have discovered a book that tells the story of Ellison’s original script. It is entitled Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay and is available on Amazon.)
In conclusion, I would suggest that if you like Star Trek and want to learn more about the little tidbits of how it got on the air, pick up These are the Voyages — TOS: Season One by Marc Cushman. Just realize that you may have to struggle through the first few chapters, and you’ll be fine.
