Am I Going Fast Enough?

I gave myself one hundred days. I've got sixty-one left.

Saturdays and Sundays seem to be terrible for trying to make any progress to speak of on the three goals. I've still got to make my way through 26 Chapters of Vitamin F.

I'm trying to consolodate my reading. Since I finished off Small Favor late last week, I've tried to stick with The Sword of Shannara, but I've gotten a bit of that sensation I get when I stop reading a book. Terry Brooks is a fine writer, but there are times when he just goes on and on with his descriptions. He sparingly adds characters and there's been a distinct sense throughout the book--there's a big world and we have to care about it. Some of those paragraphs just run on too damn long. The last chapter I read had three paragraphs in the first four pages.

I understand the need for long paragraphs. I wish I had longer paragraphs myself. But in modern commercial writing, shorter paragraphs make for a faster pace. There are two key notes my readers keep coming to me with after reading the first chapter of Vitamin F: "I really like Delilah," and "Where's the next chapter?"

Look at Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. He uses some spectacular descriptions, but his paragraphs aren't usually all that long. He usually only needs about two sentences to describe how a place or a character looks. Richer detail comes from redressing those settings later.

So when I look at my text and see that I've slashed six pages, I feel a great sense of accomplishment, especially given all the factors that are making it take up more pages. But there are times when I look over a chapter and think about killing the whole thing--the chapter, not the book.

Back on Track

In the past few days, I have edited one chapter of Vitamin F each day. I have also managed to transcribe a few pages of Mind & Machine. The most interesting thing about the whole process has been that I've been writing one-paragraph fights as part of a larger chaotic battle.

A few minutes ago, I started watching an odd anime series called Gasaraki. It's a very realistic take on mech anime, with more modern-day politics than you can imagine. (I never thought US grain prices would be a key plot point in a mech anime, but I was wrong.) It's also got ten tons of Shintoism--come for the mechs, stay for the ritual dancing--and ancient mechs called kugai.

So I take a moment to say that I haven't forgotten Ashes of War by any means. I'm not looking to reawaken it again yet, but I have far from forgotten about it.

I've also been reading three books at once. It's a crazy thought, but I've balanced it so far. At work, I read The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks; it's a solid bit of fantasy, although it leans on Tolkien a lot. At home, I read Small Favor by Jim Butcher, the lastest Dresden book. I'm also reading The Ruins by Scott Smith; it's a descriptive book with vivid images and characters who have little written out dialogue.

Things are on an upswing. Let's try to keep them that way.

A Few Notes of Criticism

As of late, I have some bones to pick with Marvel Comics.

Before I do that, I want to say that I am enjoying several books published under their banner. The X-Men line with Messiah CompleX has been a great read. The ideas are constantly pushing forward in those books, while playing proper credence to the past. So often in the past few years, Cyclops would be played as in love with Emma Frost to such a degree that he was her lapdog. Now he's the most conflicted member of their ranks, having to lead a massive offensive against his own son, while on a subtle level he keeps questioning what's really going on. Cyclops is the leader at last and he doesn't have to be compromised on any of his values in order to pull it off.

This is just a small example of what's good about the X-Men.

Now, I could say what was bad about Spider-man right now, but I'm sure a lot of you have heard it before. Sure, we've got his identity concealed again. Peter's back to using webshooters and he's got conflict with Harry Osborn to look forward to. But the price was a story I've seen referred to as being "worse than the Clone Saga." If you know Spider-man comics, then you cringe at the thought of the Clone Saga. Someday, you might cringe at the idea of One More Day as well.

No, my note of criticism toward Marvel is about it's marriage policy. Joe Quesada has claimed for years that he, nor Marvel are anti-marriage. Here was his opportunity to prove that point. Instead, he proved ours. I would have loved to have been wrong about there being an anti-marriage policy at Marvel, but they just took the third of the crown gems and pissed on it.

(I describe the crown gems of Marvel couples being Reed and Sue Richards, Cyclops and Phoenix, and Spider-man and Mary Jane. If someone knows of a Marvel couple that is just as iconic, feel free to say.)

First, Quesada set Grant Morrison loose with his "I don't pay attention to what's come before bullshit." This cost us not only Jean Grey-Summers, but it screwed up Cyclops so badly, Joss Whedon couldn't fix him. Cyclops had to be forced into the role of the cheater, even though thirty years of material said that Jean would be more likely to cheat. Current writers now have to slip in notes to say that Cyclops still mourns Jean on a daily basis, just so people won't remember that only a few years ago there was a Cyclops/Emma Frost makeout scene taking place on Jean's grave. Score: Bullshit 1, Iconic Marriages 0

Next, Quesada had to create friction in every book with their Civil War event. In order to convince someone that Iron Man wasn't trying to conquer the world, editorial decided that all the scientist characters had to fall in line with Iron Man's thinking, while all the nice characters had to say Iron Man is evil. Thus, Reed likes Iron Man's fascist ideals and Sue kicks him out of bed for it. Later she leaves. Fortunately, someone in Marvel realized that the Fantastic Four is a family first, so the couple was removed from the book (for "counseling") and the ultra-forced Strom/Black Panther duo (which only existed in Reggie Hudlin's mind) was added. Score: Bullshit 2, Iconic Marriages 1

Now, we have One More Day. This was marketed as "we're killing the marriage because it started badly." (Anyone else thinking that about Storm and Black Panther?) During his tenure, Quesada has had no less than three plausible periods in while the Spider-man/Mary Jane relationship could end and he didn't make it happen there. After Mary Jane's stalker abducted her, she left for Hollywood--it could have ended there and just been bad writing. When Peter ran out to Hollywood to find his wife, there was a well-written moment when, if neither said another word, the marriage was done; yet, they finally started talking again and made it work. In the aftermath of Civil War, she could have taken the bullet that Aunt May got--a bit forced, but still within the realm of reason.

But no, we've got to have the most forced story ever. It would have made sense if Loki had been the deal-maker, since Loki still owes Spider-man a favor. But no, Mephisto, a character that shouldn't give half a crap about Spider-man makes it all happen. And Mephisto didn't even get Peter's soul out of the deal! What kind of lousy half-wit devil doesn't write in a loophole to take someone's soul. Fourteenth Century peasants who couldn't even read could figure that one out. Unfortunately, Joe Quesada can't.

Quesada burned a lot of her personal capital with Straczynski in convincing the writer to keep his name on the last two issues of the story--a move that was vital to maintaining long-term sales, especially in trade formats. Quesada had to manufacture a good portion of the story to end up with a result that he wanted. The story didn't matter at all to him, only the result. Now a massive hole has been punched in every Spider-man appearance in the last twenty years. Score: Bullshit 3, Iconic Marriages 1

So, if you like Spider-man, I have an odd request for you. You might think I'm a bit hypocritical for saying this, but I feel it's worth saying again. My request is that you refrain from buying Spider-man comic books. In order to make Dan Buckley realize a leadership change must be enacted, you need to vote with you wallet. Don't spend another cent on Spider-man comics. This goes double for anyone who has been reading Spider-man since the Sins Past storyline where many of Straczynski's fans left. If you truly care about Spider-man, you must stop buying. The Quesada and the editorial staff are playing the part of Mephisto, the devil torturing Peter Parker's soul. Those of us who care about Spider-man need to save him from his agony, and for each Spider-man comic we buy, that agony will continue.

A final thought. If you're going to claim your work doesn't have a perceived message, those works need to clearly support your position--Don't say you're for marriage when you're really disrupting the longest running marriages.

I Need To Post Something!

That's taken care of now, I think.

In addition to my chapter assembling and other editing, I've been trying to put together another idea. This one's not something that I've fully fleshed out as of yet, but I know a few of the elements already. I've been gorging myself on Japanese culture for a while, but recently, I've been drowning in the samurai concept.

Samurai movies: The Last Samurai, Yojimbo, Versus (to a limited degree).
Samurai music: The Last Samurai soundtrack, various Princess Mononoke and Inuyasha mp3s.
Samurai video games: Samurai Warriors.
Samurai books: Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn; The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, by Mark Ravina.

Funny thing is, except for the book on Saigo Takamori, none of those inspired this idea. What I've thought up is a story in three time periods, each featuring a main character of a shared bloodline. The earliest point would be around 1600 and feature the Battle of Sekigahara. The second would take place during the Satsuma Rebellion and feature a follower of Saigo Takamori. The third would be close to the present, starring a kendo instructor who taught Commander to use a katana.

A lot of the structure is similar to a book a read about six months ago, Autumn Bridge, by Takeshi Matsuoka. It's a multi-generational story set during the Warring States period, the Meiji Restoration, and post-Meiji Tokyo/San Francisco. It features a unique concept on prophetical messages--information imparted by a spirit fron the past is actually a conversation a living woman had hundreds of years earlier with a vision of the future. The other time periods are ghosts, be they from the past or the future.

Some Returns

I found out a fine bit of information earlier. It appears that, after a few years being practically joined at the hip to Deadpool--which is a wonderfully entertaining thing itself--Cable is finally getting his own series again. It's about six months away and I'm really looking forward to it (since Cable is my favorite comic book character). Here's some series art from Ariel Olivetti:

Not totally crazy about the costume. It's a little too 1990s for me, but that's what a lot of people are clinging to these days. If you look close, Cable's finally got the proper number of scars on his right eye again (three). Coming March 2008.

On another note, I finally touched base with my overt creative drive today. I was looking through the list of files I have on Vitamin F, and I found I needed to touch another note on Oriane's quest to find the pharmacist's killer. What I decided to do was have her seek out a few potential suspects and keep coming short, only being able to speak with one of the people she's after. The suspect she eventually does speak with enrages her to such a degree, she invokes a genetic audit on him, paying off several references I've put to the procedure throughout the novel.

I mention it because, in the process of assembling the chapters, I've been unable to do any real raw writing. It's the one near-regret I have over being this far along with the writing on Vitamin F.

All the Stories are Anansi's

I've just finished reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed the book. It wasn't Neverwhere, but what is? Neverwhere is probably one of the three best books I've ever read.

There's a line in Anansi Boys that keeps coming up. "All the stories belong to Anansi..." I bring it up because Mr. Nancy/Anansi was a spider. Storytelling is often referred to in arachnid terms.

"[Fill in the blank writer] really knows how to weave a story." "The plot has a complex web of twists and turns." This is how we typically describe storytelling, in terms of a spider.

In The Diamond Age, the first character introduced doesn't directly interact with either of the main characters. Yet he is till important because the key protagonist is his daughter, while the secondary protagonist is one of his son's robbery victims. The Diamond Age is all about distant, but interwoven stories. Guess Anansi got his hands on that story too.

I guess it's just the scientist in me, but I think it's odd that, as a culture, we use simple descriptions of nature to describe some of the most complicated things.

Three May Be Too Much

Despite my better judgment, I've started reading another book, bringing my current count up to three. It's a crazy thing, trying to read more than one book at once. You've got to make sure they are different enough that you won't confuse them with each other.

The book I can only read at home is The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. It's a major exercise in "postcyberpunk," which differs from cyberpunk in that the characters are either trying to maintain the status quo or improve it. In cyberpunk, the protagonists tend to try to tear down their societies, or at least fight against them to some degree. This is the kind of book you can only read alone. Having any real distractions will pull you far enough away that you can't comprehend anything from the text.

The book I'm reading for fun is Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. It's a spinoff of American Gods and is completely twisted and fun. A quick read, as most of Gaiman's books are. With little effort, I've blasted over a third of the way through the trials and tibulations of Fat Charlie Nancy.

The third book is a book I have been compelled to read. A friend of mine, upon hearing about Vitamin F said it reminded her, to some degree, of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It's a dystopian novel about the persecution of women in an infertile world, all orchestrated by a theocracy. I'm curious to see how Atwood plays with infertility, since it's not total infertility like in The Children of Men (another book I still need to read).

Remarkably, I've kept the three titles distinct so far. Let's hope I can keep it up.