Last one before I write again, I hope
OK, all settled in in our new place. Office space ready. Feeling the angst of not letting writing momentum slip too much.
I'm not feeling the writing prompt for the descent to madness story. I might skip it and come back to it later.
Los Angeles is pretty cool, it actually feels much closer to home than Dallas. The people, the noise, the traffic.
Went to the beach for the first time in years yesterday, we just hung out and enjoyed it, the water was way too cold. We also don't have any of our nice beach stuff we used to have, just a towel, but there'll be enough time for that. The warm sand felt good and the salty breeze was welcoming. We're definitely Caribbean people, we can't be away from the water that long. And by water, I mean ocean. I'm not fond of lakes and rivers. The monsters will get me. Sharks aren't as scary as the things that lurk in my mind, still. Yes, I'm 35. So what?
On other matters, I see that The Wheel of Time is supposedly on its way to TV. My heart leaps and cringes at the same time. I understand that the success of Game of Thrones has shown that it's possible to take good fantasy books as inspiration and do it well (albeit its own thing, for sanity's sake!) however, even though I loved A Song of Ice and Fire and eagerly await to read Mr. Martin's words and see the characters he inspired on TV, The Wheel of Time is much, much dearer to me.
I've found that much of what each of us consider to be classics depends completely on what we were exposed to as kids. There's a bunch of folks who aren't fans of Jordan's epic, but to me The Wheel of Time will probably stand forever as "that" series. The one that hooked me on fantasy and made me want to be a writer. I must have read it about a dozen times by now and although I will admit that books 8-11 could've been happily condensed into one big book, Sanderson did such a great job finishing the series that I can look at it as a whole and still consider it my favorite.
So yes, I'm deathly afraid that they'll do it wrong.
I'm afraid that what happened to Shannara and The Sword of Truth will happen to WoT. Both were valiant efforts, which gave me hope with the first few episodes that reasonably passable TV adaptations would be possible, but then they became completely "meh". Shannara got so "MTV'd" that it was painful, and I really wanted to like that one, I thought their casting was well done. I thought choosing to adapt Book 2 was inspired (particularly since Book 1 can be summarized as LotR) and I dared to hope.
Then they had a fricking rave in a hippy commune.
Again, yes I understand how adaptations work, they have to appeal to more audiences, but it just rubbed me wrong. It felt too case-of-the-week sometimes, instead of epic. Too whiny and angst-ridden at other times. I liked the portrayals of most of the actors, the effects were fine (gnomes kinda iffy) but the story felt too slapped together. They turned the Reaper, the scariest demon, from a sneaking, silent killer that stalked you across the land, leaving garish victims in its wake into this bullish-ser-gregor-clegane type of tank with legs that wasn't creepy at all, and that's just one of the "meh" changes. I know screenwriting and adaptation is not easy, but even someone who hasn't read the books (my wife) thought the show was disjointed.
Shannara was no WoT or aSoIaF, but it was still a series I liked a lot (at least the first 7 books, we shall not speak of any others, kind of like Xanth). Maybe Season 2 will get better, if they tackle the Ildatch and Mord Wraiths. They have got to get Garet Jax right, though.
In the end, I am filled with more dread than excitement about the Wheel of Time TV series, but since this isn't Hades, I will not abandon hope, and cling to the tiny sliver of possibility that a good, faithful adaptation can be made.
I vote for Kate Beckinsale as Lanfear, for one.
chair!
I'm not feeling the writing prompt for the descent to madness story. I might skip it and come back to it later.
Los Angeles is pretty cool, it actually feels much closer to home than Dallas. The people, the noise, the traffic.
Went to the beach for the first time in years yesterday, we just hung out and enjoyed it, the water was way too cold. We also don't have any of our nice beach stuff we used to have, just a towel, but there'll be enough time for that. The warm sand felt good and the salty breeze was welcoming. We're definitely Caribbean people, we can't be away from the water that long. And by water, I mean ocean. I'm not fond of lakes and rivers. The monsters will get me. Sharks aren't as scary as the things that lurk in my mind, still. Yes, I'm 35. So what?
On other matters, I see that The Wheel of Time is supposedly on its way to TV. My heart leaps and cringes at the same time. I understand that the success of Game of Thrones has shown that it's possible to take good fantasy books as inspiration and do it well (albeit its own thing, for sanity's sake!) however, even though I loved A Song of Ice and Fire and eagerly await to read Mr. Martin's words and see the characters he inspired on TV, The Wheel of Time is much, much dearer to me.
I've found that much of what each of us consider to be classics depends completely on what we were exposed to as kids. There's a bunch of folks who aren't fans of Jordan's epic, but to me The Wheel of Time will probably stand forever as "that" series. The one that hooked me on fantasy and made me want to be a writer. I must have read it about a dozen times by now and although I will admit that books 8-11 could've been happily condensed into one big book, Sanderson did such a great job finishing the series that I can look at it as a whole and still consider it my favorite.
So yes, I'm deathly afraid that they'll do it wrong.
I'm afraid that what happened to Shannara and The Sword of Truth will happen to WoT. Both were valiant efforts, which gave me hope with the first few episodes that reasonably passable TV adaptations would be possible, but then they became completely "meh". Shannara got so "MTV'd" that it was painful, and I really wanted to like that one, I thought their casting was well done. I thought choosing to adapt Book 2 was inspired (particularly since Book 1 can be summarized as LotR) and I dared to hope.
Then they had a fricking rave in a hippy commune.
Again, yes I understand how adaptations work, they have to appeal to more audiences, but it just rubbed me wrong. It felt too case-of-the-week sometimes, instead of epic. Too whiny and angst-ridden at other times. I liked the portrayals of most of the actors, the effects were fine (gnomes kinda iffy) but the story felt too slapped together. They turned the Reaper, the scariest demon, from a sneaking, silent killer that stalked you across the land, leaving garish victims in its wake into this bullish-ser-gregor-clegane type of tank with legs that wasn't creepy at all, and that's just one of the "meh" changes. I know screenwriting and adaptation is not easy, but even someone who hasn't read the books (my wife) thought the show was disjointed.
Shannara was no WoT or aSoIaF, but it was still a series I liked a lot (at least the first 7 books, we shall not speak of any others, kind of like Xanth). Maybe Season 2 will get better, if they tackle the Ildatch and Mord Wraiths. They have got to get Garet Jax right, though.
In the end, I am filled with more dread than excitement about the Wheel of Time TV series, but since this isn't Hades, I will not abandon hope, and cling to the tiny sliver of possibility that a good, faithful adaptation can be made.
I vote for Kate Beckinsale as Lanfear, for one.
chair!