Hey, remember when I said I was actually looking forward to this rewrite? Well, I honestly don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I guess I figured that, given the notes, it wouldn’t be all that big a pass. But it turns out I was wrong. Yep, it never fails. Those tiny little changes you assume will be sleight and may take all of an afternoon to complete actually turn out to be fairly significant changes that trigger repercussions running throughout the rest of the script. Anyway, I was actually making progress this morning, coasting along rather nicely, until I hit a snag and became bogged down in the new and improved wunder-science. I started my research, got bogged down in that as well, and ultimately decided to call it a day. On my way out, I conveyed my frustrations to my writing partner Paul who, working on his own rewrite, had to deal with frustrations of his own today in the form of the incessant BEEP-BEEP-BEEP of the construction equipment across the street. He sympathized and expressed surprise at the requested change. For his part, he preferred the old (in his opinion, much cooler and wondrous) science and strongly urged me to pitch Rob on keeping the original. Something I’ll definitely do. Tomorrow.
Tonight, I’d like to announce October’s Book of the Month Club Selection…
Open Your Eyes, by Paul Jessup
From Publisher’s Weekly: “…pregnant space voyager Ekhi is rescued from her ailing vessel by the crew of a scavenger ship. Their captain, mysterious, doll-like cyborg Itsasu, mourns her husband’s death, and has been yearning to bring him back to life with the Ortzadar engine her ship is secretly carrying. She reluctantly allows Ekhi to join her crew, but keeps her under strict supervision. The other crew members struggle with various personal issues brought sharply into perspective by a sudden alien invasion and the discovery that the ship’s AI is playing a deadly game of its own.”
Intriguing. And clocking in at a svelte 152 pages, this novella should appeal to all those insisting they don’t have time to read. Discussion begins the week of October 12th. You have a little less than two months. Go!
A gentle reminder to those with a little more time on their hands that we begin discussion on September’s Book of the Month Club Pick, Heroes Die, the week of September 7th when we’ll be joined by author Matthew Woodring Stover. A very interesting book that promises an equally interesting discussion.
Every once in a while, the gang over at SFSignal.com do one of their “Mind Melds” where they go out to luminaries in the creative field (and sometimes me) and ask them a scifi or genre-specific question like “Given the choice, which body part would you make bionic and why?” or “What’s your space pirate name?” (Captain Nebula Jack Silverbells, duh.). Recently, they asked: “Which films do you think are good examples of Intelligent SciFi?”. Head on over and check out my atypical list: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/08/mind-meld-the-most-intelligent-films-of-science-fiction/. Then stick around and see what everyone else has to say.
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