Riddick - A Boy and His Dog

Way back in the year 2000, I saw Pitch Black, the first Riddick film in theaters.  It was awesome.  I was blown away.  Part of its awesomeness was because it wasn’t about a single character.  There were multiple stories being told, the characters had varying motivations, and while some had secrets, not everyone did.  Some of the characters were just folk who happened to be part of the story.  One of the characters, perhaps the most interesting, was Richard Riddick (Vin Diesel) an escaped convict and stone-cold killer with a literal shine to his eyes that lets him see in the dark.

How cool is that?

Turns out, for as bad as Riddick is, he actually had a moral code.  He’d kill you, but he’d have a reason . . . like you were breathing heavy or something.

Still, he was so cool that in 2004 he warranted his own film with a bigger budget: The Chronicles of Riddick.

It was mediocre at best. 

Amping up the already amped up character to epic amp levels (and beyond), the movie introduced so many crazy elements to Riddick that it was laughable.  Riddick’s eyes were genetic, not a “surgical shine job”.  Riddick was a child of prophecy.  Riddick was the last survivor of a whole race.  Riddick was the best fighter/killer, by several orders of magnitude, in the entire universe.  Riddick could throw lethal energy waves like a character from Mortal Kombat.

What the what?

Yeah, not so cool.

But the character had enough inertia from the first movie that maybe, just maybe, it could carry a third movie.

Enter 2013’s Riddick.

Instead of upping the ante (after conquering the entire galaxy I’m not certain where they would have gone), this movie returns Riddick to his roots, a desolate planet with lethal creatures and a band of mercenaries.  That’s all decent stuff, but the mythos of Riddick is still ratcheted to high, and the mercenaries are so cardboard you could package DVDs with them.  Katie Sackoff’s breasts are actually more interesting than her character.  The CGI dog that Riddick raises from a pup (over a period of a week or so) is more interesting (must be the Puppy Chow!).

I also found the ending to be rather “meh” worthy.  Better, by far, than the craziness that was Chronicles, but I was left feeling that writers had no idea what to do, and so they tacked on this awkward semi-resolution.  To make matters worse, neither Katie Sackoff or her breasts even make an appearance.  Where’d she go?  What happened there?  What the what!?

So yeah, that’s Riddick.  Here’s hoping that with even less money, they can make an even better film next time.

The World's End

Was it just me, or did anyone else find the very end of the The World's End both confusing and awesome?

Simon Pegg is pretty phenomenal.  The entire cast was awesome, and so great to see Martin Freeman (Watson/Bilbo Baggins)!

Tears of Heaven - Excerpt

The copper-tang filled her nostrils.

With a shark-like response, there was a rush of blood and adrenaline in Del’s ears that sounded like the ocean as it came in for high tide.  A red mist descended over her eyes.  She ceased to see as she normally did, catching only this or that as she focused her attention.  Instead, she saw everything from the general to detailed.  Her vision was that of a battle-lord for whom there was no other life.  The large picture and the minutia were thrown together, and sifted by a mind that was honed to the strategy of both the moment and the immediate future.  Large and small, Del knew the outcome of this battle even before she joined it.

The joy of it and the triumph soared inside her.

The absolute glory that was in her strength, her might, her power sang in her blood.

It was only small wonder that her cousins, the Nephilim of old, had sought to carve empires; smaller wonder that most of them succeeded.

Succeeded for a season.

Del turned the corner and sighted her prey.  She took in the entire scene in an instant, but didn’t stop on any of the details.  To do so might cause her to pause, whether in horror or fear or anger or sorrow.  Such emotions at this a crucial moment had killed better than her.

She had no intention to add to their ranks as the honored dead.

Two more steps and her SIG .45s came up in her hands.

They barked their greeting and threw fury at the rogue.

The first two bullets whizzed past the rogue’s head, only millimeters from the target and impacted on the concrete behind her, exploding as they ended their brief but fiery lives in a concussion of sound and shattered wall.  Del didn’t hesitate in correcting her aim, and sent three more bullets to thunder home, striking the rogue in the head, throat and chest.  Del moved forward as the rogue dropped behind the altar with a howl of pain.

From the right came robed figures.  Each was clad from toe to tip in a garish yellow, rendered more so by the obscene red glow.  Blades were produced from under cassocks and growls issued from out of cowls.

Del didn’t have time to aim.

She tried to shoot low, to wound without killing.  Her guns barked and spat fire.  Robed figures fell as scythed wheat.  Something big and heavy cracked against her back.  The blow wasn’t much, in her current state she barely registered any pain at all, but it distracted her enough that she paused.  A knife, wickedly curved and partially serrated, slashed through her thigh.  It cut cloth and drew blood.

Dantooine? Do You Mean Tantooine?

Here’s a quick update on Tears of Heaven.

Book cover: my artist is awesome.  We have one concept completed and we’re close to finishing the second.  After that, it’s just approval and edits (which shouldn’t take long) and that piece is done.

Edits: I can’t say enough good things about my editor.  She has my book’s best interests at heart, and she’s willing to fight to my last drop of blood to get it there.  Trouble is, I’m not nearly as smart as I think, and despite the eighteen-thousand-five-hundred-and-forty-three different ways she’s tried to teach me certain concepts, I just can’t grasp it.

The more I tighten my grip, the more gray cells slip through my fingers.

But I promised her I would soldier on, and I’m doing that.

Still looking toward a release this fall!

Tears of Heaven 2013!

Favorite Quotes

I was editing Tears of Heaven and came across a lovely quote from Marrin that still makes me laugh:

“Well, in that case, I hope you like daytime TV and porno.”

Yeah, that's Marrin!

Synopsis and Reviews and Stars – Oh My!

An interesting discussion broke out on one of my Facebook author groups the other day.  For a wonder, it wasn’t all just authors promoting their latest work, their upcoming release, or the review they just got.  Being an author without the name Stephan King or George “RailRoad” Martin means that you have to make as much noise about yourself as possible, even to other authors.

But this discussion was based on a poll a group member did into the importance of reviews:  did they actually affect the outcome of a purchase, or was the synopsis more important?

Personally, I consider the synopsis another piece of marketing.  Its job isn’t just to tell what the story is about, but to tell you in such a way that you’re swayed into buying it.  Most genre literature doesn’t need to do too much to sell me, so even a mediocre brief about the story will probably sell me.

Next, I look at the reviews.  I don’t actually read the reviews, I just glance through the numbers.  Anything with fewer than 20 reviews I tend to shy away from.  I’m sure I’ve got 15 to 20 friends and acquaintances that if I ask (and bribe) will provide a review for me.  That doesn’t say anything about my abilities as a writer, it just says that I can function (sometimes) in society.  The only time I actually read a review is if it’s incongruent.  Twenty-three five-star reviews and a lonely one-star.  What’s up with that?  Gotta me some good gravy over there!

I can forgive an outlying review when I’m looking at a book, but they tend to be fun to read.  It’s usually someone who took issue with a character or plot choice.  Not something actually wrong with the storytelling, but a reader armchair writing.  I’m fascinated by these, in the same way rubberneckers are by a terrible accident.  I want to see what all the fuss is about!

Check out some of the awesome fuss over here at Leasthelpful.  There are truly some gems.

But if there is some legitimate gripping about a book, I want to know about it before I make the purchase.  Twenty-eight or two-hundred five star reviews paint a pretty picture, but an equal number of one star reviews frame the whole thing.  I’m sure there are a number of folk (one is a number) who have similar tastes to my own, and find some of the tired, clichéd tropes over-used.  I want to know that when I’m testing out a new author.

In fact, reviews are actually big business.  Both positive and negative reviews can have such an impact that authors and publishers are willing to pay, and pay well, for a certain numbers of reviews.

So if you want to help me, write a review when my book comes out this fall!

The Second Cut

A few years back, I was doing weapon research (yay) for my book The Blood of Heroes when I stumbled upon a truly fascinating character: Tomoe Gozen.  She is regarded as one of the few samurai warrior women, wielding bow, sword and a sword-spear hybrid called a naginata.  

Ahh, those Feudal Japanese!

What little is known about her whetted my easily warrior-whetted appetite, and when that happens, I start writing. 

I completed a first draft of the story, but became distracted (probably by a squirrel) and never went back.

Well, good news everyone!  While waiting on the edits from Tears of Heaven, I’ve gone back to Tomoe Gozen’s historic fiction story The Second Cut.

I’ve always liked that title.  It references the infinitely harder version of seppuku (ritual suidide) called jumonji giri.  Where traditional seppuku involves the single slash across the stomach, jumonji giri, which translates as “cross-shaped cut” calls for a second, vertical cut.  Also, where seppuku allows for a sword-wielding second to cut the head from the samurai and end his suffering, jumonji giri has no such headsman.  The samurai is expected to bear the intense pain quietly and stoically, until loss of blood caused death.

Thus, performing the second cut is an order of magnitude or three harder than your run-of-the-mill seppuku.  In my book, Tomoe Gozen is given a task that could be likened to the second cut of jumonji giri.  But as a duty and honor-bound samurai, she will do whatever it takes to complete the task.