…and is stable, even on my very shaky desktop. It has all the goodness of beta 1 and has a very slightly shinier skin. Yay!
All posts by Armand
Sad book
Just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for a work book club and am appropriately depressed now. Not going to say too much (have to turn up to the book club meeting first!) – but it was an awesome book, for the most part (even if the postmodernism / parallel narratives confused the hell out of me for a while there).
Very emotional, very sad, very poignant. It’s about a kid whose Dad died in the WTC, and he discovers a key, and then decides he has to find the lock… But it’s about a lot more as well; childhood, growing up, dealing with loss, family, marriage, true love, responsibility, friendship… well, I could get soppy about it and I’ll avoid that. Suffice it to say its about the most compelling and mystifying 9 year old you could possibly imagine.
A very courageous piece of writing. I enjoyed it hugely.
Brrrrrrrrrrr
Whoever said it would be a hotter August than it was a July, you’re an idiot. Damn I’m cold. Had to dig up my slippers tonight just to walk around the flat.
[sigh]. Looks like the Summer is properly over. It’s starting to get dark on the way back from work, the weather sucks and I can feel my S.A.D. kicking in. Have to counter by spending lots of time in rooms where you don’t notice the weather – bars, cinemas, work… etc.
Given how September and October seem to be lining up, that probably won’t be a problem…
I’ve really started this time
This weekend has been relatively peaceful. Following East End Fun (check the photostream) on Saturday – I’ve not been out and about too much. Some dim-sum and novel planning on Sunday, a quiet dinner with Sheila and Dave on Sunday, and most of today – watching rubbish TV and working on the novel.
Not made huge progress – in that now I’ve kicked off properly I’d like to be able to write more than 1,700 words in a weekend. But this is one of the first pieces of fiction I’ve worked on since I was about 17 that I haven’t wanted to tear up within a day of writing it. So a good start.
It helps that people keep asking me what the novel’s about. It means I have to think about it; do things like write what it would say on the jacket, think about who the novel’s target audience is, who the heroes and villains are, what the plot complications are… etc. You know, obvious stuff, but which when all you have in your head is “I’d like to write a novel” you don’t really process it all.
So the planning’s been important. Been tapping stuff down in notes all over the place and just about got it under control, and the first few hundred words, characters, sets, scenes — they have got me pretty excited about it. And the filler — the descriptive stuff that I was vaguely worried I’d struggle to write (I’ve been practising concise, functional writing for years now) — well, that seems to be working out ok too.
It’ll be a little while before I publish anything here. I think I’m going to stick to my original plan not to put the straight text up here but perhaps to record podcasts. Hopefully get one up by the end of this Sunday, but we’ll see…
Wish me luck! For what its worth, the working title of the novel is Elemental, its set in contemporary London and it is slightly fantastical in nature. My dream would be to hit a tone somewhere between Eddie Izzard, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Joseph Heller, Phillip Pullman and Martin Amis.
Hey, I said it was a dream. Wish me luck!
Gmail’s recipe book
Does anyone else find Google’s supply of endless Spam-related recipes amusing? Spam burritos and Spam confetti pasta are my personal favourites.
Ah the joys of contextual advertising ;)
Yep, tested a theory…
…it is impossible to work on the novel while Richard E Grant and Ian McKellen are being quite so English on television. Sheila and Dave are watching the video of Jack and Sarah and I think it’s time for me to retreat away from the BritRomComFlick…
Tony’s got a blog
Tone’s started a blog over on WordPress.com. He’s an oracle on many things, but as you would guess if you knew him, the blog is likely to cover all things PR, technology (especially Apple Mac focussed) and, apparently, random bits of Australian-ness (like the recent banana drought).
Devotees of division6 will remember that, many moons ago, I blogged about a book I was reading called ‘Outlaws of the Marsh.’ Tony introduced me to the book and the name of his blog, “Timely Rain” is the nickname of a leading influence amongst the gallant fraternity, Song Jiang.
Check it.
Sugarhouse Lane
Another exciting movie coming soon is Sugarhouse Lane, a new film from Slingshot Studios. Yep, that’s right, it’s Arvind’s company’s first movie! It’s just finished its first week of shooting, and as I understand it things are going well.
Slingshot’s taken on the social media thing to help support the development and marketing of the film, and Sugarhouse lane has its own blog, Flickr photostream, and has been uploading some content onto Youtube as well – see below.
It’s hugely exciting. I’m not privy to any special news as yet but will follow the film’s official outlets and see what I can get out of Arvind as well… in the meantime, enjoy the time lapse graffiti / set creation video they’ve put up:
Oh — and Arvind — you were right. Sugarhouse Lane is a much better name for the movie than Collision. V. excited!
So many exciting movies…
There are a few exciting movies coming up. Sure, I still haven’t gotten over the excitement that was A Scanner Darkly. If you haven’t seen the trailers for the below, check them out – although I appreciate that none of these are ‘news’, some of you may have missed that these were coming.
They’re making a live-action film of The Transformers – directed by Michael “I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark when he made Pearl Harbor” Bay. The teaser looks ok, but I’m just excited about the possibility of a real-looking transforming Optimus Prime. What a hero. They’ve even recruited Peter Cullen, who voiced Prime in the original 1984 series, return to the role – “Autobots, transform and roll out.”
Ah, such satisfying geekery.
Then, there’s the Prestige, which Tom pointed me to. This has Batman and Alfred from Batman Begins (Christian Bale and Michael Caine) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) with Scarlett Johannson facing off against each other as performing magicians around the turn of the century. Except they seem to be having a Deathmatch, and there’s a chance one of them has real magic… Directed by Christopher Nolan, this also looks like it might be entertaining…
Lastly, Nic Cage has Ghost Rider coming out soon, which looks suitably ridiculous. I anticipate it being mediocre at best (why can’t Marvel follow DC’s lead and focus on quality rather than quantity!) but the visual effects look v. entertaining, and when Nic Cage says ‘let’s ride’ and transforms into a flaming, harley riding skeleton – well, it’s cool!
More on other films to come soon. But just wanted to get some anticipation out of my system!
Writing in the morning vs. writing in the evening
When does inspiration strike?
I’ve had a hectic few weeks. The peace and relative calm of this bank holiday weekend has given me some motivation to write during the day — normally distractions abound and I don’t get around to putting the proverbial pen to paper until I’ve decided to go to sleep and find insomnia striking.
I do keep losing ideas, however – thoughts for characters for the novel, blog posts etc. that occur in the shower, at work, during conversations with friends — I need to find my little black book again and starting keeping more meticulous notes…
I don’t really know if I’m a morning person or an evening person. It kind of depends how I’m feeling that day. But it’s clear I’m going to need stucture in my routine as well as structure in my planning to get this novel off the ground. I should also probably spend more time writing and less time writing about writing.