Hyperion: Finally A Movie??

Looks like Hyperion may finally be a movie.  This post is fairly long, so more after the jump:

Book Review: Me2

(Cross-posted at Homomojo)

Frustrating. 

If one word could describe my experience with Me2, the novel by M. Christian, “frustrating” would have to be it. 

To be fair, I’ve had a lot of distractions over the past couple of months, so perhaps part of the experience is my fault.  To accomodate this fact, however, I tried to read Me2 twice.  Note the word “tried.”  The second time was a no-go. 

I did manage to complete the novel once–the first time–in furtive spurts.  Which, as I think about it, somewhat resembles the manner in which it reads itself.  As a story, it progresses in fits and starts.  Just when it gets interesting, the novel fizzles back into one of the transcripted therapy sessions that begin each chapter.  (That’s not metaphor–each chapter begins with an italicized transcript of what is evidently the main character talking with his therapist).  For me, it just didn’t mesh as a story.  It was far too slow and laden with descriptions that I just didn’t find compelling. 

On the other hand, I did like what the author attempted to do in certain respects.  There is an rhythm of lyric at points that made me want to read on.  And the basic concept itself (which I won’t divulge for those who wish to read the novel) is done with originality that I can envy as an aspiring writer myself.  But for a novel described as “horror,” I think Me2 fails.  Perhaps it’s horror if the reader is a schizophrenic narcicist, but for me, I kept thinking “when is he going to get on with it?”  I just didn’t find anything about it scary at all. 

And the denoument of the novel really does it no favors.  The ending is far too tiresome to read the first time around, let alone a second try. 

I don’t know.  Perhaps I’m too rural to “get it.”  I can only say that at times I felt almost confronted by the somewhat tiresome exposition, and the manhattanite descriptions of characters.  It was overly surreal, unrelatable, and repetitive, albeit with some passages of fine writing skills buried within.  If I was grading this for a college class, maybe a B-. 

Quickies:

• Botox May Move From Face To Brain (Although whether anyone who injects botulism into their face actually has a brain in the first place may be up to debate . . .)
• I’m currently reading both Duma Key by Stephen King (and it appears to be one of his best works to date, truly) and ME2 by M. Christian.  Expect reviews of both within the next week or two.  I had planned on reviewing these sooner, but the spring thaw and a mare about to give birth any minute now (and frankly I’m sick of watching her 24/7) have made any regular reading schedule impossible.  So it’s fly by the seat of my pants for a little while. 
• Speaking of books, fellow bibliophiles, I recently found a couple of sites for great deals on books: Bookcloseouts.com and Thriftbooks.  (I mean, come ON, a copy of Elie Weisel’s Night for $1.29?  What’s to think about?)  They’re both in the sidebar. 
• As you may have noticed in this post, I’m trying out the little “answerlinks” button in the post editor.  It allows me to link to certain entries on answer.com without having to find the links myself.  Let me know if it’s annoying.  I know I hate that “snap” feature, so this may be a little better or a little worse. 

As the great Stan Lee always says,

Excelsior!

Coming Soon . . .

I should soon be receiving a copy of ME2 by M. Christian, published by Alyson Books, and hope to have a review up both here and at Homomojo within a week or two.  Because I just know you’re all waiting on pins and needles for my opinion before you make any purchase whatsoever. 

Kill Yer Darlings

You’ve probably noticed the lack of regular posting for the last couple of weeks.  Without going into too much sordid detail, I thought I’d touch on that just a bit. 

I usually compose most of my blog writing at night, when Norm is working, then post it sometime the next day, taking only a few minutes to insert links or citations where needed.  And while I read every day, I’ve not read as much in the past few years as I really would like to. 

This all changed a few weeks ago when I found my muse. 

As a few of my blog pals may know, I’ve long wanted to write professionally.  Oftentimes I get started on a project, only to get bogged down in the details of a story to the point that the story itself stops.  These tend to get discarded or saved as “brainstorm” files on my laptop, barely to be regarded again by even my own eyes.  Even those 20-30 stories that I eventually got around to finishing have never seen the light of day except for a few close friends (who flatter me by telling me they like them). 

The advent of the soon-to-be-concluded writer’s strike left me with more time to consider the best use of my time alone while the husband is at work.  I tried live-blogging Idol but no one really cared too much, and frankly I can beat my head against a wall for only so long before it hurts.  And so I finally read Stephen King’s On Writing, which turned out to be the most informative handbook I’ve ever read for writing fiction. 

Understand, if you can, that I’ve long had the basics down for grammar and structure, all the mechanics of “proper writing technique.”  But it wasn’t until reading the King book that I realized how I was limiting myself in the simplest of ways, getting bogged down in the rewrite before I’d even finished the story I wanted to tell.  Trying to find clever phrasing in order to impress the reader with my high-falutin’ wide range o’knowledge.  Nickle-and-diming my fiction to death.  Killing my darlings before they’re even born.

So here’s what I’ve been doing: reading and writing.  Not only did I finish a few short stories, but I’m on the 50th page of what I think might be my first novella.  I’ve never gotten that far before, and I’m really excited about it. 

So if you’re wondering where I am, what I’m doing, now you know.